Fall River Valley Irrigation District v. Mt. Shasta Power Corp.

I concur in the judgment for the reason that the evidence showed and the court found (1) that all of the waters naturally flowing in Pall River and its tributaries are and ever since January 1, 1919 (a point of time antedating the applications of the plaintiff’s predecessors in interest), have been reasonably needed for useful and beneficial purposes upon the lands riparian thereto, and more particularly upon the lands owned by the defendant which constitute all of the riparian lands between the defendant’s point of diversion and its power plant and which riparian lands or rights the defendant had acquired by purchase or condemnation; and (2) that substantially all of said waters, except only such parts thereof as have been diverted or used by the owners of lands riparian to Pall River above the defendant’s diversion dam, have, since the autumn of 1922, actually been put to a reasonably useful and beneficial purpose. The court was, therefore, justified in concluding that no portions of such waters were “public waters of the State of California” at the time the applications for said permits were made. No question of the validity of section 11 of the Water CommisisoU Act may…

The purpose of this action iá to settle and determine the respective claims of plaintiff and defendant to the waters of Pall River in Shasta County. By its second amended and supplemental complaint plaintiff claims a right to the first continuous flow of said stream as against defendant to the extent of 240 cubic feet per second, basing said claim upon the provisions of two permits issued by the division of water rights of the state department of public works and hereinafter more fully described. Defendant by its amended answer denied the validity of both said permits; denied that on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1919, or thereafter, there was any water subject to appropriation flowing in said stream, and alleged its ownership of riparian rights and lands riparian to Pall River and Pit River below the points of diversion specified in said permits; its construction, ownership, and operation of a hydroelectric power plant located upon said riparian lands, and its ownership of the right, qualified only by the correlative rights of other riparian owners, to divert and use, for the operation of its said power plant, all water naturally flowing in said Pall River.

The following…