East Bench Irr. Co. v. State, 8487

• Decision Date: 11 August 1956
• Docket Number: No. 8487,8487
• Parties: d 235 EAST BENCH IRRIGATION COMPANY, et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. STATE of Utah, Joseph M. Tracy, State Engineer of the State of Utah, Deseret Irrigation Company, et al., Defendants and Appellants.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 603

300 P.2d 603

5 Utah 2d 235

EAST BENCH IRRIGATION COMPANY, et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. STATE of Utah, Joseph M. Tracy, State Engineer of the State of Utah, Deseret Irrigation Company, et al Defendants and Appellants.

No. 8487.

Supreme Court of Utah.

Aug. 11, 1956.

Thorpe Waddingham, Delta, E. R. Callister, Jr., Atty. Gen., Robert B. Porter, Asst. Atty. Gen., Sam Cline, Milford, Nephi J. Bates, Richfield, C. W. Wilkins, Richard H. Nebeker, Salt Lake City, Ferdinand Erickson, Richfield, for appellants.

McKay, Burton, McMillan & Richards, Paul Reimann, Salt Lake City, for respondents.

WADE, Justice.

What provisions should be included in the district court's judgment is the question raised by this appeal. The State Engineer rejected the applications of the respondents, who are the plaintiffs in this action, to change the place of diversion and the place and manner of use of the waters of the South Fork of the Sevier River. The district court on appeal reversed that decision and we affirmed its holding that the applications should be approved but reversed some other provisions of that judgment. ¹ Each side of this controversy is greatly concerned in obtaining the full benefit of the favorable parts of our previous decision and in not allowing the opponent more advantages than that decision requires.

Upon the remand, each side prepared and submitted to the district court findings, conclusions and judgment in accordance with its views, and after full argument the trial court prepared, signed and entered its own findings which differed in some respects from all of the proposals. The court's findings and conclusions cover and are in accord with the points discussed in our previous opinion and their sufficiency is not seriously questioned, but the judgment merely directs the approval of the applications, directs that the engineer supervise the changes but does not set out the rights, liabilities, limitations or duties of the parties which we decided in our previous decision. Although the court's judgment does not follow their proposals, the respondents contend that it is sufficient. They argue that since the court, on appeal from the decision of the State Engineer, can only decide the questions which the State Engineer could have decided in the first instance, the judgment of that court should merely direct the approval of the applications, state that the changes must not impair vested rights of others and order the engineer to supervise the changes in accordance with law. They also suggest that it would be unconstitutional for the State Engineer to adjudicate questions of law which are presented by the approval or rejection of such applications, and therefore the judgment of the district court can do no more than direct the approval or rejection of such applications. On the other hand the appellants, who are the protestants and defendants in this action, contend that the judgment of the district court completely ignored and disregarded our previous decision.

There are two kinds of applications which the State Engineer must approve or reject and his decision may be appealed to the courts: one is an application to appropriate unappropriated public waters, and the other is an application to change the place of diversion or the place or use of water. ² The statutes require the approval of such an application before any right to make such an appropriation or such change can be acquired; in both cases the engineer must give notice of the application with opportunity for a protest and a hearing before his approval or rejection. Such applications must be approved if the engineer finds reason to believe that some rights under such application may be acquired without impairing vested rights of others. ³ The engineer's decision is based on his understanding of the law applicable to the facts as he views them.

The State Engineer is an executive, not a judicial officer. His decision on such an application may be based on his views of very complicated questions of law and fact, but he does not adjudicate either the law or the facts in the case and it is doubtful that the legislature, under our Constitution, has authority to confer upon the State Engineer the power to make such an adjudication. He is not required to be trained in or to be qualified to pass on such questions of law. He does have special training in the operation and control of natural streams and irrigation and other artificial use and control of water and water rights. His office must keep records of and he has the supervision and control of the streams and water systems of this state. Although he is especially qualified to understand the facts involved in these problems, the legislature has not made his decision of such facts binding on the courts on an appeal, but provided for a trial de novo on both law and facts in the district court in case of an appeal from his decision. ⁴

Since the engineer's decision to approve or reject such an application is based on his views of the law as applied to the facts which he finds reason to believe exist or may result from the approval of such application, the legislature appropriately provided for an appeal to the courts from his decision, where such questions of law and fact may be adjudicated.

Such an appeal is taken by commencing an action in the district court, where a trial de novo is provided for on all issues which could have been raised under the application to the State Engineer. Such action is strictly limited to the third of such issues as could have been raised before the engineer, and an appeal to this court is provided from the decision of the district court. The decision of these courts on such appeal from the State Engineer's decision has the same effect and no more on the rights of the applicants to proceed with their proposed project as the same decision of the engineer would have had without an appeal. ⁵ However, the decision of the engineer is merely the decision of an administrative or executive officer, not the decision of a court; it does not adjudicate the law or the facts in issue, it neither becomes the law of the case nor is it res judicata of the issues involved, nor does it become a binding precedent on the law in future cases as does the decision of the district court and of this court on such appeal. The decisions of such courts where the decision of the State Engineer is appealed to them are not merely the decisions of an administrative or executive officer or body, they are the adjudications of courts acting as such, they become the law of the case, are res judicata, and are binding precedent on the law the same as other decisions by such courts on other matters. This is obviously true notwithstanding some language used in previous cases which may suggest a holding to the contrary. Such suggested holdings to the contrary were at most mere dicta, for such holdings were not necessary to sustain the decision of those cases. ⁶ There is no basis for any contention that the decisions of these courts on an appeal from the State Engineer's decision do not have the same effect as an adjudication of the issues involved as do the decisions of such courts under similar circumstances in other matters.

However, we must not lose sight of the fact that there are a number of reasons why some questions which are considered by the courts in cases on an appeal from the engineer's decision are not necessarily adjudicated by the courts' decisions in such cases.

One such issue which cannot be adjudicated on such an appeal is the extent or priority of rights which the applicant hopes to acquire under such application. This for the obvious reason that an adjudication of such rights is premature for no cause of action for the adjudication of such rights can accrue at that time. Before a cause of action can arise to adjudicate that the applicant has established or perfected the rights which he seeks under such application, his application must first be approved and thereafter by compliance with its terms and provisions he must perfect the rights which he seeks under the application, and until this has occurred a suit to adjudicate that he has such rights is premature. For until after his application is approved he can acquire no rights under such application. ⁷

Another reason why issues considered by the courts on such appeals are not adjudicated in such actions is that often the rights of the protestants and sometimes some rights of the applicants have been adjudicated in a previous action. In such cases there is no necessity for a readjudication, but the court is bound by the previous adjudication. Even in cases where such rights have not been previously adjudicated it is often unnecessary for such an adjudication because the decision of such courts on appeal, the same as the decision of the State Engineer from which the appeal is taken, is based only on a finding that there is reason to believe that rights may be acquired in accordance with the application and not on an adjudication of such issues. This is true as to almost every issue of fact involved in such a case, the courts' decisions in such cases being based only on a finding of reason to believe that such facts do or may exist if the application is approved rather than a finding of such facts. ⁸

However, there are issues in every appeal from the engineer's decision which must be adjudicated. The court must adjudicate whether there is reason to believe that some rights may be acquired under such application without impairing vested rights of others. ⁹ In some such cases the court must adjudicate the priority of conflicting rights, ¹⁰ and in other cases, as we did in our previous decision in this case, it must adjudicate whether a foreseeable possible effect will constitute an impairment of vested rights. On the previous appeal in this case, plaintiffs made two contentions: First, they contended that they had an...