Gila Bend Reservoir Irrigation Company v. Gila Water Company

• Citation: 202 U.S. 270,26 S.Ct. 615,50 L.Ed. 1023
• Decision Date: 14 May 1906
• Docket Number: No. 226,226
• Parties: GILA BEND RESERVOIR & IRRIGATION COMPANY, Appt. , v. GILA WATER COMPANY
• Court: United States Supreme Court

202 U.S. 270

26 S.Ct. 615

50 L.Ed. 1023

GILA BEND RESERVOIR & IRRIGATION COMPANY, Appt.,

v GILA WATER COMPANY.

No. 226.

Argued and submitted April 12, 16, 1906.

Decided May 14, 1906.

Messrs. William C. Prentiss and Joseph K. McCammon for appellant.

Mr. C. F. Ainsworth for appellee.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

The appellant and appellee are Arizona corporations. The former brought this suit in the district court of Maricopa county to quiet title to certain land and water rights against the appellee and the Peoria Canal Company, Valley Canal & Land Company, also Arizona corporations, and against the Arizona Construction Company, an Illinois corporation, and against certain persons, one of whom was a resident of the ter- ritory, and the others nonresidents. The complaint contained the usual allegations. All the defendants but the Gila Water Company, appellee herein, disclaimed title. The appellee answered denying appellant's title, and, in a cross complaint, set up title in itself. To the cross complaint appellant answered that appellee claimed title 'under and by virtue of a certain judgment and decree of this court (district court of Maricopa county), rendered and entered November 20, 1894, and certain pretended receiver's deed or deeds made, executed, and delivered under and by authority of said judgment and decree and proceedings thereunder, or a certain deed or deeds of some person or persons deriving title under, through, and by virtue of said receiver's deed or deeds.' And it was alleged that said judgment and the proceedings thereunder were void in that (1) the action in which the judgment was rendered was a proceeding in rem and that the court never acquired jurisdiction over the property or any part thereof; (2) that the judgment was rendered July 21, 1894, and appellant duly appealed from said judgment to the supreme court of the territory, and the district court thereby lost jurisdiction of the action, and yet, on the 20th, of November, 1894, the district court entered a pretended amendment to the judgment and decree, which was pretended to be in lieu of the original decree of July 21, and that the only right and title appellee has to the property is under this 'pretended, amended, and void judgment and decree.'

It was further alleged that the receiver was duly appointed in another action and that he took possession of the property, and that during the time appellee claims to have obtained title to any of said property the same and the whole thereof was in the custody of the court and in the possession of the receiver, and that prior to the commencement of the suit at bar the court and receiver ceased to have any custody or possession of the property.

The trial court found that the appellee was the owner in fee simple of the property, and adjudged that the claim of the ap- pellant and all of the defendants in the question to be 'invalid and groundless.' The decree was affirmed by the supreme court.

The findings of fact of the supreme court are very general. They are only that the appellant had not, at the commencement of the action, any cause of action in respect to the property, and has not now any right, title, or interest therein; that the appellee was the owner in fee simple and in possession thereof.

The special rulings of the trial court, which were assigned as errors, and affirmed by the supreme court, appear in the opinion of the latter court and in the bill of exceptions. These rulings were made upon the introduction in evidence by the appellee to sustain its title of certain judgments rendered by the district court of Maricopa county. The facts as to these judgments are stated by the supreme court as follows:

'It appears that in the district court of Maricopa county, in the year 1893 the appellant brought suit against the Peoria Canal Company and the Arizona Construction Company, and applied for a receiver therein to take possession of the property in controversy in this action. Thereafter the court appointed one James McMillan as such receiver, who took possession of the property, and by leave of the court issued a large amount of receiver's certificates to meet the expense of necessary improvements upon the property. This suit was docketed as No. 1728. Pending this action, one W. H. Linn, and others, brought suit in the district court of Maricopa county, against the appellant and other defendants, alleging in their complaint, among...