Ford Craig Ranch Co. v. City of Los Angeles

In the Superior Court of the State of California

In and for the County of Los Angeles.

Nos. 124416 and 131050 (Consolidated).

The Ford Craig Ranch Co., a corporation, Plaintiff, vs. The City of Los Angeles, a municipal corporation, and the Board of Public Service Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles, Defendants.

*50 In these two suits in equity which were consolidated for the purposes of trial, the Ford Craig Ranch Company on its own behalf and on behalf of other land owners, agriculturists and water users of the San Fernando Valley, who are similarly situated, seeks (First) to enjoin the alleged maladministration by the City of Los Angeles and by its Board of Public Service Commissioners of a public trust, and to restrain an alleged waste of the water supply of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and,

(Second) to have this Court assume the administration of that governmental function, and to reduce •by one half, and to fix the rates now prescribed by ordinance for the use of water for purposes of winter irrigation.

The cases are highly important in their public aspects. They involve important principles of administrative law. They will have justified the time, expense and effort…