McCullagh

This is a petition for a writ of review wherein A. McCullagh and some seventy-seven other persons are applicants for the writ, to be directed against the Railroad Commission of California and Cone-land Water Company, a corporation, the respondents herein, and by which it is sought to have a certain order and decision of the Railroad Commission declaring the said Cone-land Water Company to have been and to be a public utility and directing a certain increase in water rates affecting injuriously the rights of the applicants herein, reviewed and annulled.

As to the main facts of this case there is no material dispute and these may be briefly summarized as follows: The Los Molinos River rises in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and flows in a westerly and southwesterly direction through Tehama County to the Sacramento River. During a portion of its course it passes for several miles through the Rancho Rio de Los Molinos, a Mexican grant dating from the year 1844. A large part of this rancho came into the ownership of one J. S. Cone, who also acquired a considerable portion of another and adjoining Mexican grant known as the Rancho Rio de Los Berrendos, which properties were at the time of…