United States v. Gila Valley Irrigation District

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This is an appeal from the district court’s interpretation of an elaborate Consent Decree entered in 1935. The dispute ultimately arises out of Global Equity 59, a suit filed by the United States in 1925, against all non-Indian users of the Gila River water. 1 The United States sued in its trustee capacity on behalf of the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and the San Carlos Apache Tribe (Apache Tribe). At that time, the GRIC attempted unsuccessfully to intervene. The suit ultimately resulted in a Consent Decree in 1935 (the Decree), which was stipulated to by the non-Indian parties, and the United States in its trustee capacity on behalf of the GRIC and the Apache Tribe.

*1431 The Decree provides for a system of priorities, and was based on the law of prior appropriation, as well as compromise by the parties. Thus, with one exception, those parties who had earlier put the water to beneficial use were granted senior priorities to take that water over later users. The priority rights worked out to be exactly opposite (for purposes of this appeal) to the geographical location of the parties. The Gila River first flows past the Upper Valley…