Churchill

This action is brought to restrain the defendants from diverting the waters of Butte Creek, in Siskiyou County. There is no question in the case but that the predecessor in title of the lands to which said water-right is appurtenant, Charles B. Boyes, as early as 1877 appropriated for purposes of irrigation the waters of said stream to the extent of one thousand inches, measured under a four-inch pressure, which is practically the full flow of said stream in the irrigation season, and that the appellant succeeded to said water-right by purchase from the original proprietor of the Boyes ranch and this water-right appurtenant thereto, unless by reason of the facts alleged in the answer of defendants, and found by the court to be true, the judgment in their favor that they are the owners, by a right prior to the plaintiff, of twenty inches thereof, is warranted. In their answer the defendants, while in effect admitting that as early as 1877 Charles B. Boyes had appropriated the waters of said creek, alleged, as a defense to the claim of plaintiff as his successor in interest to all said waters and as a basis for their asserted claim that they were the owners of twenty inches thereof,…