Robert Devine v. City of Los Angeles

• Decision Date: 14 May 1906
• Docket Number: No. 207,207
• Citation: 202 U.S. 313,50 L.Ed. 1046,26 S.Ct. 652
• Parties: ROBERT DEVINE, Jesse D. Hunter, Asa Hunter, et al., Appts. , v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

202 U.S. 313

26 S.Ct. 652

50 L.Ed. 1046

ROBERT DEVINE, Jesse D. Hunter, Asa Hunter, et al., Appts.,

v CITY OF LOS ANGELES.

No. 207.

Argued March 13, 1906.

Decided May 14, 1906.

Statement by Mr. Chief Justice Fuller:

Complainants below, appellants here, are 244 in number, and own in severalty various tracts of land aggregating several thousand acres, located in the county of Los Angeles, California, in ranchos San Rafael, Los Felis, and Providencia. The rancho San Rafael was granted by the King of Spain, and the other two ranchos by the Republic of Mexico, to the predecessors of complainants. The titles were confirmed, pursuant to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo [9 Stat. at L. 922], to the successors of the original grantees by the board of land commissioners created by and acting under an act of Congress approved March 3, 1851, entitled, 'An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land Claims in the State of California.' [9 Stat. at L. 631, chap. 41.] Patents were thereupon issued by the United States to the confirmees, and it was alleged that these grants conveyed the title to the waters within them.

It was further alleged that the city of Los Angeles claimed to be the successor in right and title to all the grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, and the city filed a claim before the land commissioners in virtue of the general laws of Spain to 16 square leagues of land, alleging that the said lands had been granted to the pueblo, which board confirmed the title of the city to four square leagues of land, but rejected its claim to the remaining 12 square leagues, and that a patent was issued to the city by the United States for the land so confirmed, which patent did not refer to the river or its tributary waters, and did not purport to convey any of the waters of said river. That the city claimed the paramount right to the waters of the Los Angeles river and the river itself in virtue of the grants, laws, usages, and customs of the Republic of Mexico and of the Kingdom of Spain, made and in vogue prior to the cession of the territory embraced within the state of California to the United States under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and by virtue of certain acts of the legislature of the state of California, referred to in the bill, and especially by virtue of an act of the legislature of California, passed April 4, 1850, incorporating the city of Los Angeles, and declaring that it 'shall succeed to all the rights, claims, and powers of the Pueblo de Los Angeles in regard to property, and shall be subject to all the liabilities incurred, and obligations created, by the ayuntamiento of said pueblo.

It was further alleged that the city never procured the confirmation of any rights in the waters of the Los Angeles river other than those that passed under the grant of land conferred by the patent, and that the act of the legislature, passed April 4, 1850, and certain other acts of the legislature, and proceedings, acts, and charters of the city, set forth in the bill, are a cloud upon complainants' title to their lands. That the Los Angeles river runs through the three ranchos and thence through the city; that complainants' lands are riparian to the stream; that underlying complainants' lands are percolating waters which do not constitute a part of the river, but which, by reason of the patents referred to and mesne conveyances, belong to the several complainants as owners of said lands. The bill then went on to aver that the city claims that it is the owner of the river and its tributaries and their waters, passing through the ranchos named, and of the percolating waters in complainants' lands; that it claims the right to appropriate said waters for the use of the city and its inhabitants, and that complainants have no right to take any of the surface waters of the river or the percolating waters except in subordination to the city's paramount right to take and use the same, and the city threatens and intends to institute suit in the state courts of California to enjoin complainants from using any of the waters possessed by them from wells on their lands.

That the city rests its right and claim to the river and its waters upon a certain construction of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and of the act of Congress of March 3, 1851, and upon certain acts of the California legislature and certain charters of the city of Los Angeles, adopted and approved in pursuance of an erroneous construction of the treaty and the act of Congress; the acts and charters being enumerated.

It was further alleged that, under said acts and said charters, the city had asserted and assumed the right to take physical control of the Los Angeles river and its tributaries, and has exercised the right of obstructing ditches and other conduits maintained by owners of land in the valley of the river above the city, and of preventing the use of the waters of the river for irrigation of the lands of complainants, and that said laws and charters and the exercise of said rights have resulted in the destruction of the values of the lands. And it was charged that the acts of the legislature and the charters of the city of Los Angeles were in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in that they deprived, or attempted to deprive, complainants of their property without due process of law, and to grant the same to the city of Los Angeles; that the acts and charters impaired the obligation of the contracts expressed in the patents of the United States to complainants' lands; and that the assertion and exercise by the city of the right to control the river and its waters were in violation of § 1979, title 24, of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p 1262).

And the bill further averred that the construction of the act of Congress of March 3, 1851, upon which the defendant city rested its right and claim to said river and to said waters, is erroneous, and that, according to the proper construction thereof, the city was required to present to the board of land commissioners its claim to the waters of the river for confirmation.

It was also alleged that the claims and threats of the city to institute actions against complainants, and the control which it has exercised over the river and the waters thereof, and the several acts of the legislature of California, and the charter of the city, purporting to convey title to the river and its waters upon the city as the successor to the Mexican pueblo, cast a cloud upon the titles of complainants to their lands, and had, in large measure, destroyed the market values thereof.

It was prayed:

1. That a decree be granted complainants removing the cloud cast by the city of Los Angeles upon their titles to the lands described in the bill, and that the acts of the legislature of the state of California and the charters of the city be declared invalid in respect to conferring upon the city any rights in the waters of the Los Angeles river, acquired from the pueblo of Los Angeles, other than such rights as were ascertained and confirmed under the act of March 3, 1851.

2. That a decree be granted to complainants and each of them quieting their several titles to their lands and to the waters therein, and to the riparian right of each of them to use the waters of said river, as against the paramount title claimed by said city to have been derived from Spain or Mexico, or claimed to have been derived from or to be supported by said acts of the legislature of the state of California, or by the charter of said city; and also that it be decreed that complainants and the city have each and severally such title only, derived from Spain and Mexico, as was confirmed and patented to them or their predecessors by the act of Congress of March 3, 1851.

3. That a decree be granted to complainants, forever enjoining the city of Los Angeles from setting up or asserting such paramount right and title to said waters; and further enjoining said city from asserting and exercising dominion or control over said river and said waters under or by virtue of said acts of the legislature or said charter of said city of Los Angeles.

It was alleged in the answer that, by the terms of each of the grants to the three ranchos named in the bill, and by the laws of the government making the same, all of the waters within any of the lands embraced in said ranchos, which formed a part of or found their way into the surface or subterranean stream of the Los Angeles river, were excepted and reserved in favor of the pueblo of Los Angeles, and that none of said waters were confirmed or granted by the United States to complainants' predecessors.

It was admitted that the city claimed to be, and it was alleged that the city was, in fact, the successor to all the rights and grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments to the pueblo of Los Angeles.

The answer further alleged that the patent issued by the United States to the city of Los Angeles purported to grant to the mayor and council of the city of Los Angeles all appurtenances belonging to the land therein granted, which included all the waters of the river and the right to the use of the same.

It was admitted that the city claimed the paramount right to the waters of the Los Angeles river by virtue of grants, laws, usages, and customs of the Republic of Mexico and the Kingdom of Spain and the act of the legislature approved April 4, 1850, mentioned in the bill, but it was denied that these were the only sources of title through which the city claimed; and alleged that it also claimed said paramount right by virtue of long-continued use and possession of said river and the waters thereof for the period of more than one hundred and twenty years, and by various grants and conveyances from private individuals, and by virtue of various judgments and decrees of courts of competent jurisdiction,...