U.S. v. Alpine Land & Reservoir Co.
| Decision Date | 08 April 1999 |
| Docket Number | 97-17016,Nos. 97-17011,s. 97-17011 |
| Citation | 174 F.3d 1007 |
| Parties | 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2569, 1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 3352 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ALPINE LAND & RESERVOIR COMPANY, Defendant. In the Matter of State Engineer Decision Regarding Application 61995 Churchill County, a political subdivision of the State of Nevada, Petitioner-Appellant, v. R. Michael Turnipseed, State Engineer, State of Nevada, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources, Respondent-Appellee. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Orr Water Ditch Co., et al., Defendants. In the Matter of State Engineer Decision Regarding Application 61995 Churchill County, a political subdivision of the State of Nevada, Petitioner-Appellant, v. R. Michael Turnipseed, State Engineer, State of Nevada, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Richard G. Campbell, Jr., Campbell & Stone, Reno, Nevada, for the petitioner-appellant.
Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General of Nevada, David C. Creekman, Deputy Attorney General, Carson City, Nevada, for the respondent-appellee.
Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General, Stephen M. Macfarlane, Trial Attorney, Environment & Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Sacramento, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.
Steven D. King, Assistant City Attorney, Fallon, Nevada, for amicus curiae City of Fallon.
Gordon H. DePaoli, Woodburn & Wedge, Reno, Nevada, for amicus curiae Sierra Pacific Power Co.
Robert S. Pelcyger, Fredericks, Pelcyger, Hester & White, L.L.C., Louisville, Colorado, for amicus curiae Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians.
Donald L. Christensen, Deputy City Attorney, Reno, Nevada, for amici curiae Cities of Reno and Sparks, Nevada.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada; Lloyd D. George, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. Nos. MIS-D-183 LDG, MISC-A-3 LDG
Before: BETTY B. FLETCHER, A. WALLACE TASHIMA, and M. MARGARET McKEOWN, Circuit Judges.
Churchill County appealed to a Nevada state court the decision of the Nevada State Engineer, R. Michael Turnipseed, granting a water rights transfer application to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The United States District Court for the District of Nevada enjoined the state court proceeding because the state proceeding interfered with the district court's exclusive jurisdiction to hear appeals regarding the water rights at issue, rights that had been originally adjudicated by the district court. Churchill County appeals, contending that the district court erred in issuing the injunction. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.
At the turn of this century, the Secretary of the Interior, acting pursuant to congressional authorization, withdrew from the public domain a large tract of land in western Nevada. This land became the Newlands Reclamation Project, a project diverting and storing water from the Truckee and Carson Rivers in a reservoir behind Lahontan Dam and distributing it downstream by means of canals for irrigation and related uses. See Nevada v. United States, 463 U.S. 110, 113-18, 103 S.Ct. 2906, 77 L.Ed.2d 509 (1983) (). In 1913, the United States began quiet title proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada to adjudicate the water rights of all users, including the Newlands Reclamation Project, to the Truckee River. A final decree was entered in 1944, known as the Orr Ditch Decree. The United States brought a similar proceeding for the Carson River in the same federal court in 1925, which resulted in 1980 in the Alpine Decree. This appeal involves water rights owned by the United States, specifically, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ("Fish and Wildlife Service"), in the Newlands Reclamation Project in Churchill County, Nevada. Applications to change the place of diversion or the manner or place of use of water rights adjudicated under these Decrees are directed in the first instance to the State Engineer of Nevada ("State Engineer"). See United States v. Orr Water Ditch Co., 914 F.2d 1302, 1311 (9th Cir.1990); United States v. Alpine Land & Reservoir Co., 697 F.2d 851, 860 (9th Cir.1983) ("Alpine I ").
On April 4, 1996, the Fish and Wildlife Service filed two applications with the State Engineer to change the place and manner of use of the water rights it had purchased from other users and that had been adjudicated under the Alpine and Orr Ditch Decrees. Under the Fish and Wildlife Service's application, the water was to be transferred from the Newlands Reclamation Project to the Lahontan Valley Wetlands and used for recreation, wildlife, and maintaining the wetlands. Churchill County filed a protest to each application with the State Engineer, asserting that the transfer of water would deplete Churchill County's groundwater supply, harm its tax base, and create a dust hazard. On October 30, 1996, the State Engineer conducted a public hearing and found that the transfer would result in little if any effect on the groundwater supply, negligible tax consequences, and no threat of a dust hazard. Accordingly, the State Engineer granted one of the Fish and Wildlife Service's applications. 1
In November 1996, Churchill County filed an appeal of the State Engineer's ruling in the Third Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada. The State Engineer filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, which the court denied. The Nevada court narrowly construed the relevant federal court precedent, which held that the federal district court exercises appellate jurisdiction over decisions of the State Engineer that involve federally decreed water rights. The state court further held that Nevada Revised Statute § 533.450 2 applies only to water rights decrees entered by state courts.
On August 11, 1997, the State Engineer filed a motion in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada asking the court to enjoin, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1651 and 2283, further proceedings in the state court. The United States, in its capacity as plaintiff in the Alpine and Orr Ditch actions, filed a brief in support of the State Engineer's motion. While the motion was pending, Churchill County filed a motion in the state court to enjoin the federal proceeding, which the state court granted. On September 17, 1997, in identical orders under the Alpine and Orr Ditch Decrees, the federal district court issued its own injunction. 3
Churchill County contends that the district court erred in enjoining the state proceeding because the district court does not have exclusive jurisdiction over all of the State Engineer's rulings regarding waters of the Carson and Truckee Rivers. According to Churchill County, the district court's jurisdiction is limited to decisions that implicate federal interests in the operation of the Newlands Reclamation Project. Churchill County also argues that the district court improperly reviewed the decision of the Nevada state court.
We review the existence of subject matter jurisdiction de novo. See Galt G/S v. JSS Scandinavia, 142 F.3d 1150, 1153 (9th Cir.1998). The question of whether the district court could enjoin the state court proceeding under the Anti-Injunction Act is also reviewed de novo. See Quackenbush v. Allstate Ins. Co., 121 F.3d 1372, 1377 (9th Cir.1997). However, the district court's decision to issue an injunction that comes within an exception to the Act is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See id. "A district court abuses its discretion when it rests its conclusions on clearly erroneous factual findings or on incorrect legal standards." Id.
Churchill County argues that the district court did not have jurisdiction to enjoin the state court proceeding. We disagree. We conclude that the district court's jurisdiction over disputes arising under the Alpine and Orr Ditch Decrees is both continuing and exclusive.
We have consistently interpreted both the Alpine and Orr Ditch Decrees to provide for federal district court review of decisions of the State Engineer regarding applications to change the place of diversion or manner or place of use of water rights derived from the Alpine and Orr Ditch Decrees.
The Alpine Decree expressly provides the district court with continuing jurisdiction over transfer applications:
Applications for changes in the place of diversion, place of use or manner of use as to Nevada shall be directed to the State Engineer. Any person feeling himself aggrieved by any order or decision of the State Engineer on these matters may appeal that decision or order to this Court.
(Emphasis added.)
This jurisdictional arrangement has been repeatedly upheld. See United States v. Alpine Land & Reservoir Co., 878 F.2d 1217, 1219 n. 2 (9th Cir.1989) ("Alpine II ") (); Alpine I, 697 F.2d at 858; United States v. Alpine Land & Reservoir Co., 919 F.Supp. 1470, 1474 (D.Nev.1996) ("Aqueduct I ").
We have also interpreted the Orr Ditch Decree as providing for continuing federal court jurisdiction over appeals from decisions of the State Engineer arising under that Decree. See Orr Water, 914 F.2d at 1308-09 & n. 8. For change applications, the Orr Ditch Decree instructs that
[p]ersons whose rights are adjudicated hereby, their successors or assigns, shall be entitled to change in the manner provided by law the point of diversion and the place, means, manner or purpose of use of the waters to which they are so entitled or any part thereof, so far as they may do so...
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