Orme

Plaintiffs, John K. Orme and Edith B. Orme, appeal from that portion of an inverse condemnation judgment which awarded them approximately $67,700 damages and denied interest on the entire award from the date the first damage occurred, and from the order granting the motion of the state, taxing engineering costs and attorney fees.

Statement of Facts

The plaintiffs appeal only from post trial decisions of the court rendered after a jury returned a verdict in plaintiffs’ favor. The following factual summary is not disputed and has been gleaned from the recitation of facts contained in the parties’ briefs.

This is an inverse condemnation action brought by plaintiffs as a result of water damages to their rice-producing property. The real property consists of 147 acres of land located near the west side of the Thermalito Afterbay in Butte County. The Thermalito Afterbay is part of the State of California’s water project at Oroville Dam and is used as a reservoir to ensure that despite fluctuations in water flow caused when excess electricity is used to pump water back into the dam, a constant supply of water returns to the Feather River. In support of their claim, plaintiffs…