Seneca Consol. Gold Mines Co. v. Great Western Power Co.

This appeal involves a conflict of claims to the right of use of the waters of the North Fork of the Feather River at certain points thereon in Plumas County. The record is large and the briefs of counsel are numerous and voluminous, but we intend to confine this discussion within comparatively narrow limits.

Plaintiff, a corporation, the owner of certain lode mining claims, on the ninth day of August, 1924, sued defendant public utility corporation to enjoin it from diverting the natural and normal flow of the waters of said stream above •plaintiff’s lands. The complaint is in two counts. The first is predicated upon its prescriptive right in said stream and the second upon its riparian right therein. Defendant answered framing its pleadings to call into operation the provisions of section 534 of the Code of Civil Procedure and the chapter on Eminent Domain, first making categorical denial of some of the allegations of the. complaint, admitting directly and by implication other allegations, but resting its defense in the main upon a claim of prescriptive rights in said waters, estoppel and the statute of limitations. At the same time it also filed its cross-complaint, pleading…