Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1914-01-24
SETTLERS GIVEN
NEEDED RELIEF
All Moneys Paid on Water Con-
tracts Must Be Applied to
Complete projects.

Settlers on an irrigation projec
are entitled to- have every dollar the.
pay on water contracts applied to th'
completion of the system no matte
how many transfers of the property
may intervene, nor how the waite
contracts have been assigned to the
settlers, where the promoters are in
solvent.
This is the purport of decision
handed down by the supreme court
ON Wednesday i'm the case of c. G
Childs and others against N. j. Nett
eel and others, a case involving the
Murphy Irrigation company projec
in Owyhee county. 1t is a decision
of tremendous Importance to settlers
and irrigation companies throughout
the state. 1t is far reaching i'm its
application, and the main principle
laid down by the court will be i'm
voked in Strengthening out the tangles
ON a number of projects, such as the
King Hill, the Medbury, the Big Lost
river and others 1t means, i'm brief,
that the promoters of irrigation pro
jects must complete the system and
put the water ON the land before they
can expect to reap harvests by COM
pelling the settlers to make payments
ON water contracts, to be applied ON
obligations.
Incidentally Judge Davis comes out
of the case with flying colors. 1t was
he who laid this principle when the
case was on trial in the district court,
and his Judgment has been fully sus-
tanned by the full supreme court.
Justice Sullivan wrote the volumin-
Gus and exhaustive opinion for his
court and Chief Justice Ailshie and
Judge Alfred Bulge, who sat with
him when the case was considered,
concur fully in his findings.
Action upon which this dec SION
was based was instituted i'm the dis
trict court by c. G. Childs against R.
E. Neitzel, H. R. Ne:tzel, w. D. Nc
Reynolds and H. A. Toole, directors
of the Murphy Land & Irrigation COM
pany, for the purpose of ousting the
directors named from the office i'm
the company, and to have the offices
of president, vice resident, secretary
and treasurer declared vacant. 1t
was also undertaken in this action to
have a mortgage executed by the
corporation in favcr of III. r. Neitzel
declared void and to have a receiver
appointed to take charge of the pro-
perty. This action was based upon
the ownership of 200 shares of the
capital stock of the defendant corpor-
alton by Childs and not upon con-
tract for a water right.
A complaint in intervention was
filed by the holders of water con-
tracts, owners and in possession of
$500 acres of land under said pro-
ject. These lands were settled upon
and improved at great cost to the
intervenors. They and their families
were dependent upon these lands for
support The corporation entered
into agreements to construct the Muir
ply project and to sell to the settlers
shares of water appropriated or i'm
pounded by it, also certain rights in
and to the irrigation system itself.
The system was to remain the sole
of the company until fully
completed, and until all the waters
to be diverted and .beneficially applied
under the system was sold. The cor
poration further agreed that within
one year after the final completion
of the whole project and within five
years from December 81, 1906, it
would turn over the entire project
to it's water users under its water con-
tracts.
This contract also provided that the
purchase price of water rights would
be $35 and acre; that the purchase
price was to be paid in 10 annual in
stallments; that per cent interest
was to be paid ON deferred payments;
and the company was authorized to
collect 60 cents an acre each year as
fee ON all the land
water was used ON it or not.
In the intervenors' complaint it was
that the corporation never
completed the system; that it neglect
ed and refused to dc SO; that it never
delivered and was unable to deliver
water to the settlers, or the amount
of water to which the contract hold
ers we're entitled; that the corpora
ton would be unable to deliver water
until the system was completed;
that the lands under the project were
arid In character and required the