City of San Bernardino v. City of Riverside

Both parties have appealed from the judgment.

The city of San Bernardino is situated in what is known as the San Bernardino artesian basin, and the lands com prising it overlie a part of the subterranean water of said basin. The dispute in the case arises from the fact that both parties are taking such subterranean waters, the plaintiff taking them for the use of its inhabitants for domestic and other purposes, and the defendants taking them to be transported to the city of Riverside and the vicinity thereof for irrigation and domestic use, said region being entirely outside of the said basin and of the watershed which supplies water thereto. The complaint asks that the claims and rights of each of the parties be determined and adjudicated and that the defendants be enjoined from diverting water from said basin for use upon lands not situated therein or in the watershed tributary thereto.

The answer sets up the several claims of the defendants to the water aforesaid and denies that plaintiff has any paramount rights thereto. The defendants also filed a cross-complaint asking that their rights to take water from said basin should be determined and adjusted.

The court made…