City of Los Angeles v. City of San Fernando

• Decision Date: 12 May 1975
• Citation: 14 Cal.3d 199,123 Cal.Rptr. 1,537 P.2d 1250
• Parties: , 537 P.2d 1250 CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SAN FERNANDO et al., Defendants and Respondents. L.A. 30119. In Bank
• Court: California Supreme Court

Page 1

123 Cal.Rptr. 1

14 Cal.3d 199, 537 P.2d 1250

CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SAN FERNANDO et al., Defendants and Respondents.

L.A. 30119.

Supreme Court of California,

In Bank.

May 12, 1975.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing July 30, 1975.

[537 P.2d 1258] Burt Pines and Roger Arnebergh, City Attys., Edward C. Farrell and Gilmore Tillman, Chief Asst. City Attys., Robert E. Moore, Jr., and Ralph Guy Wesson, Asst. City Attys., Gilbert W. Lee, Deputy City Atty., and George G. Grover, Special Counsel, Corona, for plaintiff and appellant

Neville R. Lewis, San Fernando, Joseph W. Rainville, City Atty., Glendale, and Samuel Gorlick, City Atty., Burbank, Lewis, Varni & Ghirardelli, San Fernando, W. H. Jennings, Paul D. Engstrand, Wallace R. Peck, Jennings, Engstrand & Henrikson, San Diego, Henry Melby, Melby & Anderson, Glendale, William Howard Nicholas and Nicholas, Kolliner, Myers, D'Angelo & Givens, Los Angeles, for defendants and respondents.

Martin E. Whelan, Jr., Whittier, as amicus curiae on behalf of defendants and respondents.

WRIGHT, Chief Justice.

The City of Los Angeles filed this action on September 30, 1955, (1) to quiet its title and obtain a declaration of its prior rights to the water underlying the Upper Los Angeles The ULARA is the entire watershed of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries above Gauging Station No. F57, which is located just above the junction of the river and the Arroyo Seco, near the intersection of North Figueroa Street and San Fernando Road and the intersection of the Pasadena and Golden State Freeways. The ULARA is bounded by the crests of mountain ranges: the Santa Susana Mountains and San Gabriel Mountains on the north; the San Gabriel Mountains, San Rafael Hills, and Repetto Hills on the east; the Elysian Hills and Santa Monica Mountains on the south; and the Simi Hills on the west. The 'valley fill' portion of the ULARA is divided into four subareas, and one of the issues in the case is whether these subareas should be treated as distinct ground water basins or as parts of a single source of the Los Angeles River.

                [537 P.2d 1259]  River Area (hereafter referred to as 'ULARA'), and (2) to enjoin the defendants from extracting such water other than in subordination to the plaintiff's prior rights.  Numerous defendants were eliminated from the case before trial by dismissal, disclaimer, default, or stipulated judgment, and are not [14 Cal.3d 208] parties to this appeal.  The remaining defendants now before us are the Cities of San Fernando, Glendale, and Burbank, the Crescenta Valley County Water District, and several private parties whose water claims are all smaller than those of the defendant cities and water district. 1  After a nonjury trial between plaintiff and these defendants, judgment was entered on March 15, 1968, denying plaintiff's claims, awarding prescriptive rights to plaintiff and defendants, and imposing continuous restrictions on the parties' extractions of water commensurate with the available supply.  Plaintiff appeals from this judgment and from a judgment entered the same date in favor of the State Water Resources Control Board for its expenses as referee
                

By far the largest of these subareas, comprising 112,047 out of the 123,428 acres in the total valley fill, is the San Fernando subarea, which includes most of the San Fernando Valley plus the Los Angeles River Narrows, located at the southeast corner of the ULARA. The natural course of the Los Angeles River is from west to east along the southern edge of the San Fernando Valley until it reaches what is now the northeast corner of Griffith Park and turns abruptly south, paralleling the Golden State Freeway through the Narrows down to Gauging Station No. F57.

The other three subareas of the valley fill are designated as Sylmar, Verdugo, and Eagle Rock. Sylmar is the area north of the city of San Fernando. Most of Sylmar is within the City of Los Angeles, but it also includes a small slice of San Fernando. The Verdugo subarea is the southerly half of the narrow valley east of the Verdugo Mountains, extending along Foothill Boulevard from the middle of the Tujunga district southeast through La Crescenta and Montrose. The Eagle Rock subarea is in the Eagle Rock district of Los Angeles. No issue specifically pertaining to the Eagle Rock subarea remains in the case.

The sources of the respective water supplies of the parties within the ULARA are as follows:

Plaintiff delivers water imported through its aqueduct from Owens Valley and Mono Basin to all parts of its territory within the ULARA, and for most of this territory, such imported water is the exclusive supply. The rest of this territory contains three service areas which receive some of their water from additional sources as follows: (1) The Mission Wells service area located south and west of the City of San Fernando, receives ground water ² from the Mission Wells in the Sylmar subarea. (2) The Sunland-Tujunga service area, overlapping the San Fernando and Verdugo subareas northeast of the Verdugo Mountains, receives ground water from nearby wells in the San Fernando subarea. (3) The Narrows service area, including the Los Angeles River Narrows and parts of the Eagle Rock and Highland Park districts, receives ground water from the San Fernando subarea and in addition receives imported water which emanates not only from the Owens acqueduct but also from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD). Until recently, all MWD water came from the Colorado River. Since entry of the judgment below, MWD has commenced to distribute water received from Northern California through the State Water Project.

The ground water which plaintiff extracts from the ULARA and does not deliver to the foregoing three service areas is exported from the ULARA. The exported water is taken from wells in the southeastern San Fernando Valley and in the Narrows and flows by gravity to other parts of the city having a lower elevation.

San Fernando, at the time of the judgment below, obtained its entire water supply from city wells in the Sylmar subarea. Following extensive damage to its water supply system from the earthquake of February 1971, San Fernando joined the Metropolitan Water District and now supplements its ground water supply with MWD water.

Glendale extracts water from its wells in both the Verdugo and the San Fernando subareas and also purchases water from MWD. Burbank extracts ground water from the San Fernando subarea and purchases MWD water. Crescenta Valley County Water District extracts ground water from the Verdugo subarea and purchases MWD water. All the private defendants extract ground water from various points in the San Fernando subarea except the Wellesley Company and Moordigian, which extract from the Sylmar subarea.

PLAINTIFF'S CLAIMS TO ULARA GROUND WATER

Plaintiff makes separate claims to (1) Native ground water, and (2) ground water derived from Imported water. Native water is derived from rain and snow within the watershed. Imported water reaches the ground supply by two principal means: it may be deliberately 'spread' for the purpose of 'recharging' the ground supply, or it may return to the ground after use by customers. As of 1955, about 27 percent of the water delivered to customers in the ULARA returned to the ground supply. Of the annual additions to the ground supply, about 42.5 percent was derived from imported water, and the rest was native water.

Claim to Native Water: Pueblo Right

Plaintiff asserts a pueblo right to all the native waters of the Los Angeles River and the native waters supplying it, paramount to all other claims insofar as such waters are needed by plaintiff for ordinary municipal purposes and the use of its inhabitants within the city. This pueblo right, ascribed to Spanish and Mexican law, has been recognized by a long line of

                [537 P.2d 1261] cases, commencing as early as Feliz v. City of Los Angeles (1881) 58 Cal. 73, and continuing most recently with City of Los Angeles v. City of Glendale (1943)  23 Cal.2d 68, 142 P.2d 289.  The pueblo right has been held to attach to the water needs of inhabitants of areas annexed to the city rather than being confined to the needs of inhabitants [14 Cal.3d 211] of the original pueblo.  (City of Los Angeles v. Pomeroy (1899) 124 Cal. 597, 649, 57 P. 585.) 3  The right has been held to attach not only to the waters of the Los Angeles River itself but also to ground waters of the San Fernando Valley supplying the river.  (City of Los Angeles v. Hunter (1909) 156 Cal. 603, 607--608, 105 P. 755.)  Plaintiff now claims that the pueblo right gives it a prior claim to all the native ground waters of the ULARA, including those underlying the Sylmar and Verdugo subareas
                

Claim to Return Flow From Imported Water

The first Los Angeles Aqueduct water from the Owens River Valley reached the San Fernando Valley on November 5, 1913. At first this water was piped directly into distribution mains south of the Santa Monica Mountains. In May 1915, plaintiff annexed most of the San Fernando Valley and in the same month began to distribute Owens water for irrigation within the valley. Plaintiff contends that in delivering this imported water in the San Fernando Valley, it intended that the water would return to the ground after use and thereby become available for recapture in its wells in the southeastern part of the valley where it had been extracting water since the turn of the century. Plaintiff further asserts that this intent has continued with respect to water delivered to, and returned from, Urban customers in the San Fernando Valley. Consistent with this theory, plaintiff contends that the defendants who purchase and distribute imported MWD water in the ULARA have prior rights in such water when it is returned to the ground after use. The amount of such imported water delivered in the ULARA by defendants is very small in comparison to the...