Case ID: cal_53/html/0262-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court :", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[No. 5973.]
    D. T. HUSTON and FIFTY OTHERS v. JONAS LEACH, W. W. WILSON, and G. M. BRANCH.
    Water-Rights—Construction of Decree.—The clause of a decree enjoining the defendants ‘1 from in any manner interfering with the waters of sai d springs so as to prevent the same, or any part thereof, from flowing into Lytle Creek,” only applies to defined streams, and does not restrain him from availing himself of percolations upon his own land, even though he might thereby diminish the water which would otherwise issue from the springs.
    
      Appeal from the District Court of the Eighteenth Judicial District, San Bernardino County.
    The action was brought to enjoin the defendants from diverting and using any of the water of a flowing stream called Lytle Creek, the plaintiff basing his rights upon prior appropriation and continued use since 1853. The defendant Wilson denied having diverted the water from the creek, and alleged that he was in possession as a pre-emptor of one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the creek, occupying the tract for agricultural purposes; that upon his premises water naturally rises by percolation through the soil, forming springs and rivulets. He claimed the right to use this water only. The Court rendered a decree which contained the clause quoted in the opinion. The defendant Wilson appealed.
    
      H. C. Rolfe, for Appellant.
    
      Waters & Swing, for Respondent.
   By the Court :

The clause of the. decree by which the defendant Wilson is enjoined “ from in any manner interfering with the waters of said springs, so as to prevent the same, or any part thereof, from flowing into Lytle Creek,” only applies to defined streams, and does not restrain him from availing himself of percolations, even though he might thereby diminish the water which would otherwise issue from the springs.

Judgment and order affirmed.