Westlands Water Dist. v. U.S., 81-4500
| Decision Date | 01 March 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-4500,81-4500 |
| Citation | 700 F.2d 561 |
| Parties | WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America; U.S. Department of Interior, et al., Defendants-Appellees, v. ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND, INC., Applicant for Intervention-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Thomas Graff, Patricia Wells, Berkeley, Cal., for applicant for intervention-appellant.
Adolph Moskovitz, Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard, Sacramento, Cal., Anne S. Almy, David Shilton, Washington, D.C., David Shilton, Land & Natural Res. Div., Washington, D.C., for appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.
Before MERRILL, WRIGHT and CHOY, Circuit Judges.
The Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. ("EDF") appeals from the denial of its application for intervention as of right under Rule 24(a), F.R.Civ.P., and for permissive intervention under Rule 24(b). 1 EDF sought to intervene in an action for declaratory and injunctive relief brought by Westlands Water District ("Westlands") against the United States, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Reclamation, and various officials of those agencies.
Westlands Water District is a local governmental agency of the state of California located in the Eastern District of California and organized and existing under and by virtue of the California Water District Law of the State. California Water Code, Secs. 34000 et seq.
Through this lawsuit filed in 1981, Westlands seeks injunctive and declaratory relief, asserting rights acquired by it in contracts entered into between it and the United States respecting the delivery of water by the United States. The Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, interpreting the contracts and various statutes, has raised questions regarding the scope of and charge for that delivery and the obligation of Westlands to repay the cost of certain operational facilities constructed by the United States to assist in water delivery.
Westlands's complaint, numbering fifty-seven pages, recites in detail the circumstances leading to the execution of the contracts, the desire of the United States to amend them in certain respects, negotiations carried on for over ten years respecting such amendments, the ultimate breakdown of negotiations, and the threat of the United States to discontinue delivery of water unless amendatory contracts demanded by it were executed.
The position of Westlands, in brief, is that absent amendments the original contracts remain in effect. It seeks a declaration of its rights under those contracts and rights arising under allegedly implied contracts and by virtue of estoppel. It seeks an injunction against the United States requiring it to honor Westlands's rights and sought a preliminary injunction requiring the United States to make specified deliveries at specified charges during the pendency of the suit. 2
EDF is a not-for-profit membership corporation dedicated to the protection and rational use of natural resources and to the preservation and enhancement of the human environment. It has long advocated an environmentally and economically sound water policy in the state of California. In particular, it has sought to protect water quality and environmental values in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from the increased demand for water export.
Shortly after the present action was brought, following a motion by Westlands for a preliminary injunction, EDF sought to intervene as a party defendant in order to oppose Westlands's motion. It asserted, under Rule 24(a), that it possesses the requisite interest in the subject matter of the action, i.e., the extent of the right of Westlands to water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by the Central Valley Project of the United States Bureau of Reclamation; that EDF or its members will be injured and their interests will, as a practical matter, be impaired or impeded by a decision favorable to plaintiff; and that EDF's interest is not adequately represented by the governmental defendants in this suit. It also sought permissive intervention under Rule 24(b).
The District Court denied the motion to intervene and EDF appeals. We affirm.
EDF and its members do indeed have an interest in the extent of the right of Westlands to water exported from the Delta. The same can be said of a substantial portion of the population of northern California. While we recognize that the requirements of Rule 24(a) are to be construed in favor of the applicant for...
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