United States v. Orr Water Ditch Co.

In this case, we consider whether a Nevada statute providing for an automatic *1079 stay of the State Engineer’s decisions applies to federal proceedings under the Orr Ditch Decree.

Because we find that Nev.Rev.Stat. § 533.450 is an integral part of Nevada water law rather than a generally applicable rule of civil procedure, we conclude that it does.

I. Background

The underlying case arises from a 1944 federal court decree quieting title to certain water rights in the Truckee River. The Truckee River originates in California, flows into Nevada, and terminates in Pyramid Lake, the principal natural feature of the Pyramid Lake Reservation. Acting under authority granted to it by the Reclamation Act of 1902, 32 Stat. § 388, the federal government established the New-lands Reclamation Project to divert water for irrigation from the Truckee and Carson Rivers. Because private landowners and the Indians of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation possessed pre-existing water rights in the rivers, in 1913 the United States sued in federal district court to quiet title to all water rights in the project area. More than thirty years later, the federal district court in Nevada entered its…