Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-10-14

was decided on last Tuesday after
noon, when Judge Walters denied
the petition of the Idaho Fruit Lands
Company to have the system of the
Great Western Beet Sugar Company
and the Elmore County Irrigated
Farms Association declared thel
property Of the-Water right holders
This~snit was originally filed in
March of this year. and at that time
there was also filed a voluntary pc
tition in insolvency by the Great
Western Beet Sugar Company, under
which it was sought to have an as
signee in bankruptcy appointed for
the purpose of winding up the COM
pany's affairs. This later petition
was denied by the Court, who held
that as the Great Western Beet Su-
gar Company was foreign corpora
tion, the courts of Idaho had no
Jurisdiction over it in the matter of
voluntary insolvency. On the petit
tion Of the Idaho Fruit Land Com
pany, Judge Walters appointed Mr..
Norman Isaachson to take charge of
the irrigation system for the season
of 1909, but he was not empowered
to adjust the many entanglements
in which the Great Western Beet Su-
gar Company was involved While
this arrangement provided for the
distribution of water during the ir-
rigation season of 1909. it in no man
ner tended to clear away the maze of
troubles and litigation which sur
rounded the company.
At this term of Court the Idaho
Fruit Land Company pressed its ac-
ton to have the systems declared the
property of the water-right holders;
the contention of its attorney, Mr..
J. G.. Watts, being that numerous per-
sons had been induced to invest in
water rights on the promise that the
system when completed and paid for
would become the property Of the wa
ter right users Mr.. Watts also con-
tended that as the Mountain Home
reservoir and canals. which are the
property of the Elmore County Irri-
gated Farms Association, had been
under the control of the Great West
ern Beet Sugar Company for several
years, and was apparently an integ-
raj part of that of that Company's
system, it should also be turned over
to the water users. Mr.. Wolfe ap-
peared for the Elmore County Irri-
gated Farms Association, and the
Great Western Beet Sugar Company
was represented by Mr. w. c. Howie
and Messrs Cavanah & Blake, Of
Boise, Mr. Blake being in court for
his firm. Mr.. Wolfe clearly show
ed by evidence and in his argument
that the Gilmore County Irrigated
Farms Association is the owner Of
the city reservoir and canals and that
it has no connection with the Great
Western Beet Sugar Company; that
the latter company owns only about
one-sixth of the capital stock of the
former and merely used the property
under lease for period Of three
years. which lease was terminated
early in 1909 Council for the Great
Western Beet Sugar Company disput-
ed Mr.. Watts contention that any
promise made by officers or agents
of the company to the effect that the
system was to be turned over to the
water right holders-these giving the
purchaser only the right to demand
and receive water Council also
showed that the suit was one in equi-
tw and that. therefore, not only the
water right holders were concerned,
but the creditors and stockholders
of the company as well. They stated
their position, and the position of the
company very clearly-that they
we're in Court to see that everyone
was protected and that the compan5
could not and did not hope to gain
anything by decision in its favor.
The taking of testimony and the
arguments consumed the better part
of two days. and the Court promptly
decided against the plaintiff and in
favor of the Great Western Beet Su-