Department of Water & Power v. Inyo Chemical Co.

This cause is before us upon appeal by the State of California, from a judgment entered after the demurrer of the defendant and respondent to the complaint in intervention of said state had been sustained without leave to amend. Therefore, for the purpose of this appeal the facts must be taken to be as declared in said complaint in intervention, wherein the following declarations form the basis of the alleged cause of action of the state herein.

For several years prior to and during the month of November, 1926, the defendant, Inyo Chemical Company, a corporation, operated a manufacturing plant near the southerly end of Owens Lake, in Inyo County, California, in which it produced calcined trona and a refined soda ash from lands leased from the State of California. The City of Los Angeles and Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles maintained and operated the so-called Los Angeles Aqueduct along a course which passed a short distance westerly of said plant. On or about November 27, 1936, a break occurred in said aqueduct near said plant and the waters from said aqueduct washed through and over a portion of said premises so leased by said Inyo Chemical Company, and…