Riverside Water Co. v. Sargent

This action concerns the relative rights of the plaintiff, a corporation, and the defendant, Timber Ditch Water Company, also a corporation, to the use (acquired by appropriation) of water flowing in the Santa Ana river in San Bernardino county; each share of the stock of said Timber Ditch Company represents the right of the holder thereof to use for a definite time all the water owned or controlled by the company, and the interest of the other defendants arises from their ownership of shares of such stock, and consequent right to an apportionment of the water. It is alleged in the complaint that plaintiff is the owner of all the water of the river at the point where defendants, by means of a dam and ditch, diverted therefrom “a large amount of water belonging to plaintiff, to wit, upwards of one thousand inches measured under a four-inch pressure.” Defendants, by their answers, denied that plaintiff is the owner of all the water of the river, and averred a superior right in the Timber Ditch Company to divert-such water, by means of said dam and ditch, “to the extent of one thousand inches measured under a four-inch pressure, in constant flow, for the use and benefit of its…