City of Fresno v. Edmonston

• Decision Date: 09 May 1955
• Docket Number: No. 685-ND.,685-ND.
• Citation: 131 F. Supp. 421
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
• Parties: CITY OF FRESNO, a municipal corporation, Tranquillity Irrigation District, a public corporation, Petitioners, v. A. D. EDMONSTON as State Engineer of the State of California and Chief of the Division of Water Resources, Department of Public Works of the State of California, Harvey O. Banks and L. C. Jopson, as hearing officers for said A. D. Edmonston as State Engineer of the State of California and Chief of the Division of Water Resources, Department of Public Works of the State of California in the matter of Applications Nos. 23, 234, 1465, 5638, 5817, 5818, 5819, 5820, 5821, 5822, 9369 of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, Applications Nos. 6771, 6772, 7134 and 7135 of the City of Fresno, and Application No. 6733 of the Fresno Irrigation District, Respondents.

131 F. Supp. 421

CITY OF FRESNO, a municipal corporation, Tranquillity Irrigation District, a public corporation, Petitioners, v. A. D. EDMONSTON as State Engineer of the State of California and Chief of the Division of Water Resources, Department of Public Works of the State of California, Harvey O. Banks and L. C. Jopson, as hearing officers for said A. D. Edmonston as State Engineer of the State of California and Chief of the Division of Water Resources, Department of Public Works of the State of California in the matter of Applications Nos. 23, 234, 1465, 5638, 5817, 5818, 5819, 5820, 5821, 5822, 9369 of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, Applications Nos. 6771, 6772, 7134 and 7135 of the City of Fresno, and Application No. 6733 of the Fresno Irrigation District, Respondents.

No. 685-ND.

United States District Court S. D. California, N. D.

May 9, 1955.

Claude L. Rowe, Fresno, Cal., for petitioners.

Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., and B. Abbott Goldberg, Deputy Atty. Gen., State of California, for respondents.

HALL, District Judge.

Rank et al. v. Krug et al. was originally filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Fresno, on September 25, 1947. On October 7, 1947, the defendants who were designated as officials of the United States Bureau of Reclamation filed a petition for removal of said action to this court, pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1441-1442, upon the grounds that this suit was an action of a civil nature arising under the laws of the United States; that it was specifically directed to acts performed or to be performed by said defendants in their official capacity as agents of the United States; that the value of the matter in controversy exceeded $3,000, and that they were officials of the United States Bureau of Reclamation. The action was removed, and no motion to remand has ever been made.

The main action is a suit wherein named individuals, on behalf of themselves and all others within the class of those taking water directly from the river, or from wells alleged to be supplied in their underground replenishment by the San Joaquin river, which areas cover between 400,000 and 600,000 acres of land including a portion of the City of Fresno which takes its water for domestic purposes from wells, were named as plaintiffs. The defendants were designated officials of the Bureau of Reclamation, Irrigation Districts, and others. The State of California voluntarily intervened and appeared "in its sovereign, governmental, and proprietory capacities, etcetera." The United States, in the latter part of the proceedings, under the provisions of an Act passed July 10, 1952, 43 U.S.C.A. § 666, was joined and has since been a party to the proceedings although filing no answer or brief. The fifteen Irrigation Districts taking water from Friant dam and each of which are parties to the proceedings before the respondents in the instant matter, are also parties defendant. Several hearings were had on motions for preliminary injunction. The trial of the main action was commenced on January 29, 1952, and the evidence was concluded almost three years later on December 31, 1954. The trial was marked by interruptions, including two proceedings participated in by the defendant Irrigation Districts, the State of California, and the United States, had in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, in unsuccessful efforts to obtain writs of prohibition to prevent the Trial Court from proceeding further. Nevertheless, approximately 250 days were consumed in the actual trial of the case, upon which there has been accumulated almost 30,000 pages of transcript, hundreds of exhibits covering thousands of pages touching on and reporting in detail on scientific engineering data relating to geography, geology, topography, rainfall, and all matters that affect or concern surface and underground waters in the area. While the case has been long, it is well known that water rights litigation is usually protracted, involved, and bitterly contested.

As noted, the evidence was finished on December 31, 1954, at which time the Court indicated the matter would be submitted for decision upon the filing of briefs. The last brief received on the merits was that of the State, received on April 11, 1955. It was thus not until that time that this Court was in a position to give consideration to the many intricate, involved, and important issues of fact and law with which the main case was concerned. The hearings which were set to commence on April 5, 1955, were noticed on December 31, 1954, the last day of the taking of evidence in the main case. The hearings were thus set to commence before the final briefs were due and filed.

The foregoing statement is made, not only in order that some comprehension may be had of the enormity of the task of not only defining the issues in the main case, and deliberating upon and deciding them, but also to indicate that whatever is said in this Memorandum of Opinion is not to be taken as a final decision of this Court on any of the issues on the merits in the main case.

The problem to be resolved here is whether or not, in the exercise of its discretion, this Court should restrain the hearings heretofore commenced by the Division of Water Resources of the State of California until the further order of the Court, or until the case is finally decided.

The hearings before the defendant officials involve sixteen applications for the appropriation of water, filed under the Water Laws of the State of California.

Two applications, No. 234 and No. 1465, were filed by the Madera Irrigation District on January 19, 1916, and September 26, 1919, respectively. Seven were filed by Miller and Lux — No. 23 filed on March 27, 1915; No. 5817, No. 5818 and No. 5819 were filed February 2, 1928; No. 5820, No. 5821 and No. 5822 were filed February 3, 1928. Two were filed by the State of California — No. 5638 on July 30, 1927, and No. 9369 on August 2, 1938. All of the foregoing numbered applications were assigned and transferred to the United States of America in 1939. Four applications were filed by the City of Fresno — No. 6771 on August 20, 1930; No. 6772 on August 20, 1930, and Nos. 7134 and 7135 on December 5, 1951. The remaining application, No. 6773, was filed on July 30, 1930, by the Fresno Irrigation District.

Applications Nos. 6771 and 6772 of the City of Fresno had been pending for more than 25 years, as had also Application No. 6773 of the Fresno Irrigation District, and No. 234 of Madera for forty years.

Thus, except for Fresno Irrigation District, all the applicants in said numbered applications are parties to the main action.

Rank v. Krug is essentially and primarily a suit for the adjudication and determination of water rights. The res of the action is the water, regardless of whether the parties seek, or are entitled to, enforcement of their rights by decrees which act in personam. United States v. U. S. District Court, 9 Cir., 1953, 206 F.2d 303; State of California v. U. S. District Court, 9 Cir., 1954, 213 F.2d 818; Miller & Lux v. Rickey, C.C. 1906, 146 F. 574, affirmed, 9 Cir., 152 F. 11, affirmed 218 U.S. 258, 31 S.Ct. 11, 54 L.Ed. 1032; Rickey Land & Cattle Co. v. Wood, 9 Cir., 152 F. 22.

The first matter to be determined is whether or not this Court has the power to issue a writ. Section 1651 of Title 28, United States Code, is a reaffirmance of the power of the District Court to issue writs "necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law." The provisions of Section 2283 of Title 28, United States Code, are not a prohibition against, or a limitation upon, the power of this Court to issue writs under Section 1651 of Title 28, United States Code, if the writ is issued in aid of its jurisdiction, and if the injunction is agreeable to the usages and principles of law. Nor does Section 2283 apply to restraining and enjoining the conduct of administrative proceedings before State bodies or by State bodies. Mississippi R.R. Comm. v. Illinois Cent. R.R. Co., 1906, 203 U.S. 335, 27 S.Ct. 90, 51 L.Ed. 209.

While the question of jurisdiction was raised on motions to dismiss, which were denied by this Court — Rank v. Krug, 90 F.Supp. 773 — various of the defendants, if not all of them, have, as permitted under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., raised as a special defense, the lack of jurisdiction of this Court. It therefore becomes an issue on the merits to be decided by this Court in the main case whether or not it has any jurisdiction, and if it has jurisdiction on some or all phases, the nature and kind of relief which may be granted. And whatever may ultimately be the decisions of this Court on any of the issues in the main case, it is certain that it has jurisdiction to determine its jurisdiction. Land v. Dollar, 330 U.S. 731, at page 738, 67 S.Ct. 1009, 91 L.Ed. 1209; Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. v. Northwestern Public Service Co., 341 U.S. 246, at page 249, 71 S.Ct. 692, 95 L.Ed. 912; Hill v. Walker, 8 Cir., 1909, 167 F. 241. And certainly, whatever else was decided in the two prohibition cases against this Court — United States v. United States Dist. Court, 9 Cir., 206 F.2d 303, and 9 Cir., 213 F.2d 818 — it is clear from them that this Court has jurisdiction to finally determine the main issues in Rank v. Krug on the merits.

Inasmuch as this Court has jurisdiction in the main action, it has jurisdiction to issue an injunction in an ancillary proceeding to restrain interference with its jurisdiction, and to preserve the res of the action.

The within proceeding is clearly ancillary to the main action. Miller & Lux v. Rickey Land & Cattle Co., C.C., 146 F. 574, and Rickey Land & Cattle Co. v. Wood, 9 Cir., 152 F. 22, and 218 U.S. 258, 31 S.Ct. 11, 54 L.Ed. 1032.

In such an instance it is not necessary that great, immediate and irreparable injury,...