The Delta independent., 1910-07-22
LEGAL LORE.

The Right to Seepage Water.-.u .
Garrigues of the district court of Weld
county has again decreed that man
who develops seepage water has the
right to use the river as a carrier and
take the amount of water put in as
seepage from the river at any place
along its course, if used for immediate
irrigation.
A Decision Against the Sugar Trust.
"A sugar company at Garden City.
Kansas, tacitly agreed to furnish
water to a grower to irrigate eighty
acres of land but subsequently abro-
gated the agreement by applying the
water to its own lands. Suit was
brought to compel the company to
furnish the water to the grower and
the district court upheld the contention
as it should have done.
The Illegality of Bleached Flour.-A
jury in the federal court at Kansas
City, Missouri, has declared that flour
bleached with nitrous acids is adulter
ated and against the provisions of the
pure food act. The jury also passed
upon the point that the flour was mis-
branded which throws it out of inter-
state commerce. The milling people
now threaten to establish bleaching
plants in all the soft-wheat states.
Upsetting a Kangaroo Court. The
privilege long practiced by the water
commissioners of Colorado of acting as
courts in disputes between competing
ditch companies has been declared il
legal by the Colorado supreme court.
The Boulder and Left Hand Ditch
Company demanded that the water
commission should turn in a certain
amount of water to which it was en-
titled by its decree. Another ditch
company opposed the demand and the
commissioner, exercising the privilege
long supposed to be vested in his Off e,
sat as court to try the case. He
decided against the Boulder company
The supreme court, in reviewing the
case, declared that the commissioner
had exceeded his powers, that he was
bound to dispense the water in &C
cordance with the DEGREES and that If
anybody were injured, the remedy lay
with the courts of law.
Authority of State Board to I'm
pose Penalties. The Colorado supreme
court has decided that the state board
of livestock inspection has no right to
impose penalty for failure to comply
with its rules forcing cattlemen to dip
or spray diseased stock. The seizure OF
cattle known to be diseased and the
declaration that stock diseased are
considered within the power of the
board, but the board is declared with
out authority to infiict or have punish
ment inflicted on any person disregard
4 ing the regulation. This decision was
handed down in the case OF William
Lange of Cheyenne county who was
arrested at the instance of the state
board of stock inspection after els open
defiance of the order. He admitted
that his stock was diseased, and went
into court with the declaration that
the law empowering the board to have
him punished was unconstitutional as
his sole defense. He insisted that the
act of 1893 giving the board authority
to prosecute was made invalid by a
prior law which had never been re-
pealed. The court discharged Lange,
and then the case was taken before the
higher court on behalf of the board.
The lower court held that the stock OF
Lange was subject to seizure only.
The opinion declares the legislature
was within the scope of its authority
in giving the board power to regulate
and restrict disease among cattle and
sheep; that the board was an auxiliary
to the state government. but that un,
der the old act the authority did not
extend 10 inflicting punishment. Field
and Farm.