Rueth v. State
| Decision Date | 30 April 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 13650,13650 |
| Citation | 103 Idaho 74,644 P.2d 1333 |
| Parties | Herbert L. RUETH and Kathleen J. Rueth, Husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. The STATE of Idaho, Robert G. Kalb, Paul Keeton, John Eaton, Jack Hemingway, and H. Jack Alvord, as Commissioners of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, Joseph C. Greenley, Director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
David H. Leroy, Atty. Gen., Lynn E. Thomas, Sol. Gen., John C. Vehlow, David J. Barber and Stephen V. Goddard, Deputy Attys. Gen., Boise, for defendants-appellants.
Peter J. Boyd of Elam, Burke, Jeppesen, Evans & Boyd, Boise, for plaintiffs-respondents.
Herbert and Kathleen Rueth brought an inverse condemnation action against the Idaho Fish and Game Department. The action arises out of the Department's operation of a water diversion structure, which allegedly caused the water table on the Rueths' property to be raised so that their land has been flooded from subsurface percolation, "effect(ing) a complete loss of value of said lands of plaintiffs and, therefore, constitutes a taking of said lands of plaintiffs by defendants." The district court entered judgment on a jury verdict in favor of the Rueths on their inverse condemnation action, and the Department appealed. On appeal, the judgment is affirmed.
Herbert and Kathleen Rueth operated a dairy farm on 18.2 acres of land in Canyon County. The acreage formed a rectangular area through which, on the west side, from south to north, flowed a slough variously known as the Rueth drain and the Weilmunster drain. Most of the dairy farm, including all of the improvements and roadways were located to the east of that drain. A small area of pasture was located to the west of the drain.
The Rueth dairy farm had previously been a portion of a much larger ranch known as the "Hansen Ranch" from the 1940's to the early 1960's. At that time the property was owned by Jim Hansen, who had maintained a large cattle feeding operation on or near the Rueth property and on the portion of his ranch immediately across the Rueth drain. Hansen moved off the property in the early 1960's. In 1962 the dairy on the Rueth property was constructed by Bruce Brahs. Subsequently, Don Weilmunster purchased the property, and in 1967 took on the Rueths as partners. They dissolved the partnership in 1968. At approximately that time Weilmunster sold the bulk of the ranch to the Idaho Fish and Game Department for inclusion in the Fort Boise Wildlife Management Area. The dairy was not included in the sale.
The principal waterway "downstream" from the Rueth property is Sand Hollow Creek. It carries water from irrigated uplands of the Black Canyon Irrigation Project to its confluence with the Snake River at the Fort Boise Wildlife Management Area. Although probably a natural waterway at one time, it is now principally an agricultural drainage way. It carries a very substantial sedimentation load because of its nature as an agricultural drainway.
In 1951, Jim Hansen constructed an irrigation check structure or dam across the creek in the vicinity of the Rueth property. The structure was designed so that the water level behind it could be raised by the insertion of a series of boards. The boards are placed in the structure, one on top of the other, until the desired height of water behind it is reached. The structure is approximately five feet high at its maximum. The original method of irrigating from waters captured behind the structure was simple. Hansen and his successors would check the water up by the insertion of boards when they needed to irrigate. They would bring the water to a height sufficient to permit them to pump from the backwater. Once they were finished irrigating, after a period of a few days to a week, they would remove the boards and allow Sand Hollow Creek to run freely again through the structure. Although some sediment would build up as siltation behind the structure while the boards were in, the short duration during which the water was impounded and the immediate rush of the creek would allow that sediment to be cleared away.
Not long after acquiring the property, the Fish and Game Department ceased to follow the irrigation practice which Hansen had initiated and which had been followed by Brahs and Weilmunster. Instead of periodically checking water up only high enough and long enough to permit pump irrigation, the Department changed the location of the irrigation ditch involved, built wild fowl ponds, and by 1970 or 1971, had begun checking the water up to the full height of the dam year around. The check structure was now used to flow water into the ditch by gravity both to irrigate farm land and to fill and maintain wild fowl areas. The use of irrigation pumps had been abandoned.
Beginning with the winter of 1971-72, the Rueths and their neighbors began to notice a significant deterioration of the groundwater condition on their property. By 1972, the westernmost of the feedlots on the Rueth's dairy farm was virtually filled with standing water and rendered useless. Subsequently, by the end of 1974, the Rueth's feedlots on the east side of the Rueth drainage were inundated with the groundwater.
The instant case is a sequel to Rueth v. State, 100 Idaho 203, 596 P.2d 75 (1979) (Rueth I). There the State Fish and Game Department appealed a jury verdict in favor of the Rueths on their inverse condemnation claim against the state. In reversing and remanding, the court held inter alia that submission to the jury of the question of taking was error.
Thereafter, the Rueths immediately sought a new trial on their original claim that the Fish and Game Department's operation of the irrigation check structure on Sand Hollow Creek and resultant flooding by way of subsurface percolation of their dairy farm "effected a complete loss of value of said lands of plaintiffs and, therefore, constitutes a taking of said lands of plaintiffs by defendants." The Fish and Game Department denied the taking and denied any responsibility for the alleged flooding.
After the trial date was set, the Department responded with a series of procedural motions for a bifurcation and a vacation of the trial setting. The district court denied these motions and the action came on regularly for trial on December 10, 1979.
The district court judge chose to impanel the jury at the outset of the evidence in order that it might be fully apprised of all of the circumstances relevant to any possible damages determination which it might have to make. However, consistent with Rueth I, the district judge sat as the sole finder of facts on the question of whether or not a taking had occurred.
On December 17, 1979, following an extended trial, the district court entered its memorandum decision on the issue of taking. The district court expressly stated that the decision constituted its findings of fact and conclusions of law. I.R.C.P. 52(a). In the decision, the court found: (1) Sand Hollow Creek carries a heavy sediment load constantly; (2) the Department altered the operation of the check structure after acquiring it and blocked Sand Hollow Creek for much longer periods of time than previous owners did; (3) the extended operation of the check structure caused widening of the stream channel, flattening of the stream gradient, reduction of water velocity and advancement of sedimentation; (4) the change in channel geometry was an effective proximate cause of the ground water table raising around the Rueth property; (5) the raising ground water table caused substantial impairment of the Rueths' property interest in the operation of their dairy farm; (6) the full extent of such impairment was realized on or about October 4, 1974, and (7) the management practices of the Rueths did not constitute a contributing cause of the water damage on their property. On the basis of these findings, the court further found and concluded "that the State of Idaho did, as of October 4, 1974, take that portion of plaintiffs' property lying east and northeast of the Rueth drain, and that plaintiffs are entitled to just compensation for that taking."
The case was then submitted to the previously impaneled jury for determination of just compensation. The jury returned a verdict in the sum of $145,000, and judgment issued thereon.
Thereafter, the Idaho Fish and Game Department perfected the instant appeal.
The Fish and Game Department presents eight issues on appeal. A careful review of these eight issues and the arguments advanced in support thereof disclose that many of the issues challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the district court's findings of fact. Summarily, the factual issues are whether the following findings of fact are supported by competent and substantial evidence: (1) that the Department's operation of the irrigation check structure constituted a "substantial cause" of the Rueths' loss of use of their property; (2) the management practices of the Rueths did not constitute a contributing cause of the water damage suffered by the Rueths; and (3) the taking occurred on or before October 4, 1974. These factual issues shall be treated in a consolidated manner and discussed at the outset. The remaining issues presented on appeal are whether the district court erred in denying the Department's motion to bifurcate the trial and refusing to act upon the Department's motion to view the premises.
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