North Side Canal Co. v. Idaho Farms Co.

Appellee has petitioned for a rehearing on the ground that the court failed to notice a controversial point involving appellant’s maintenance lien for 1935.

An Idaho statute (§ 41-1905, Idaho Code) relating to the maintenance liens of canal companies provides that such lien does not bind the land for a longer period than two' years “unless proceedings be commenced in a proper court within that time to enforce such lien.”

Appellee sought to quiet its title as against appellant’s claimed maintenance liens, asserting that 'the latter were invalid, for reasons noted in o.ur opinion, 107 F.2d 481 . The pleadings at no time presented a formal issue concerning the statute of limitations as affecting appellant’s rights. The statutory period for the foreclosure of the 1935 maintenance lien had not expired at the time the suit to quiet title was filed. During the progress of the trial the Canal Company offered evidence of the timely commencement by it of' suits in the state court to foreclose its liens for 1935 and 1936. On appellee’s objection this evidence was excluded, apparently on the ground that the suits had been filed after the institution of the action in the federal court and…