Provident Irrigation District v. Cecil

• Decision Date: 15 June 1954
• Citation: 271 P.2d 157,126 Cal.App.2d 13
• Parties: PROVIDENT IRR. DIST. et al. v. CECIL et al. Civ. 8379.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 157

271 P.2d 157

126 Cal.App.2d 13

PROVIDENT IRR. DIST. et al. v. CECIL et al.

Civ. 8379.

District Court of Appeal, Third District, California.

June 15, 1954.

Duard F. Geis, Willows, Virgil O'Sullivan, Colusa, for appellants.

P. J. Minasian, Oroville, for respondent.

VAN DYKE, Presiding Justice.

In this action two owners of land within an irrigation district joined with the district in an action brought to obtain mandatory and prohibitory injunctions against defendants, who also owned land within the district.

Responsive to the pleadings, the trial court found the following: Provident Irrigation District is and at all times mentioned in the complaint was an irrigation district organized by virtue of law. The north boundary of defendants' land was the south boundary of Carriere's land and his north line in turn was the south line of Lambert's. The lands of the three owners sloped from north to south and had been drained by two wide and shallow natural channels coursing through the Lambert and Carriere properties and on to and across the lands of defendants. These drains in a state of nature accommodated the flow of rain and surface waters brought to or falling upon the lands within their drainage areas. These drains converged at a point in the northerly portion of the defendants' lands and led thence southerly until their waters emptied into Willow Creek, a well-defined and natural channel. For more than five years before this action was begun the three plaintiffs, with their predecessors in interest, had continually, openly, notoriously, adversely and under claim of right, used, improved and maintained the said drains and through them had drained the summer run-off of excess irrigation water and waste water from the Lambert and Carriere lands and from lands lying north of them. In order to carry out the duties imposed upon it by law to provide drainage for land within its boundaries the district had cleaned and dredged the channels of the drains and in particular in the years 1939, 1942 and 1945 had caused them to be dug to a level of 82.6 feet S. V. I. Co. datum at their junction with Willow Creek and from that level, at that point, had caused the drains to be dug out and maintained to constant hydraulic grade northerly across the lands of defendants and of Carriere and Lambert. The channels of these natural drains had been so improved by the district, and had been, for more than five years, used by the district for the aforesaid purposes. In December of 1948 the defendants constructed a levee or dike along the northerly boundary of their lands and across the drains and thereafter had so leveled and planed their land as to fill in the drains. The levee which the defendants so erected made no provision for escape of waters flowing in the drains. But after this action was begun, the defendants made an insufficient opening in the levee and constructed a toe ditch along it to combine both drains. The defendants merged the two channels at a point where the most westerly thereof entered their lands and from that point, after action begun, defendants had constructed a new channel for the combined drains leading in a more direct route across their lands and into Willow Creek. However, the toe drain, the opening through the levee for the combined drains, and the channel made to carry the water to Willow Creek were insufficient both as to cross section and depth to accommodate the usual flow of waters and were not on a hydraulic grade. The result was that the waters were impeded and prevented from flowing across defendants' lands as they had theretofore done. This hindrance in flow prevented the accustomed movement of both summer irrigation water and normal high winter water having its source from rainfall on the lands within the area so that the waters were backed up and impounded. On the lands of Carriere the result was substantial damage to his lands, and to crops planted thereon. The waters so impeded were not flood waters, although often flood waters inundated and covered all of the lands in question. These floods, however, were temporary. The lands soon emerged and the waters returned to the natural channels from which the overflow came. A cash judgment was awarded Carriere. Judgment was given the plaintiffs in substance as follows: The court ordered defendants 'to forthwith provide, dig, and deepen the channels for drains 27 and 27a [being the two drains heretofore discussed] across the hereinafter described land of defendants, to a condition, width, grade and depth, and remove that portion of the levee or dyke constructed by defendants * * * across the northerly boundary of the said hereinafter described land of defendants to the extent necessary so that said drains and openings in said levee will provide drainage equal to and of a capacity equal to that of drains 27 and 27a as they existed immediately prior to the acts of defendants in filling in and damming off said drains; * * *' The defendants were further ordered generally to provide sufficient facilities to receive and transport across their lands 'the surface waters naturally and normally flowing through and from the property of plaintiffs [here describing the lands of Carriere and Lambert]; such facilities to be of sufficient capacity and depth to receive and transport such surface and excess irrigation and crop drainage waters from the property of plaintiffs that may flow to or from the same, so that said waters may flow uninterrupted and unimpeded to and across said hereinafter described land of defendants as the same were accustomed to flow through the said drains 27 and 27a to and upon and through said hereinafter described land of defendants prior to the acts of the defendants in filling in and blocking off said drains.' Defendants were further prohibitorily enjoined from thereafter filling in or damming up the drains or facilities to be provided under the mandatory order and from in any way interfering with the flow of water in the drains north of defendants' lands so as to injure or interfere with the use of the lands of Carriere and Lambert and from in any way interfering with or preventing the district from maintaining or cleaning the drains or facilities after the same had been so restored by the defendants pursuant to the mandatory order. From this judgment defendants have appealed.

It appears that the court has adjudged all three plaintiffs to have established prescriptive rights, not only to flow across the land of defendants waters naturally draining through them from the lands of Carriere and Lambert, but also to use the drains for the purpose of discharging into them and having borne away by them excess irrigation waters without limit as to amount of the latter. Carriere and Lambert, since these were natural drains, had the right to have them maintained in their natural state to carry off waters naturally flowing through them and also to discharge into them such reasonable quantities of excess waters as...