Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 22

Heading: Existence of Pueblo Right: Res Judicata Issue

Text: Plaintiff claims that the declaration of its pueblo right in its prior judgment against defendants Glendale and Burbank ( City of L.A. v. City of Glendale, supra, 23 Cal.2d 68) makes the existence of that right res judicata against those defendants in the present proceeding. The present action is for injunctive relief, not adjudicated in Glendale, and so is based on a different cause of action from that underlying Glendale. ( Langley v. Schumacker (1956) 46 Cal.2d 601 [297 P.2d 977]; Cason v. Glass Bottle Blowers Assn. (1951) 37 Cal.2d 134, 141 [231 P.2d 6, 21 A.L.R.2d 1387].) (1) Under the collateral estoppel aspect of the doctrine of res judicata, any issue necessarily decided in the prior final determination of a cause of action by a court of competent jurisdiction is conclusively established between the parties or their privies in a subsequent lawsuit on a different cause of action. ( Teitelbaum Furs, Inc. v. Dominion Ins. Co., Ltd. (1962) 58 Cal.2d 601, 604 [25 Cal. Rptr. 559, 375 P.2d 439]; Bernhard v. Bank of America (1942) 19 Cal.2d 807, 810 [122 P.2d 892].) We hereafter examine the possible exception to this rule when the prior determination was of an issue of law rather than of fact. Defendants Glendale and Burbank contend that plaintiff waived its claim of res judicata by (1) failing to plead the prior judgment (see Code Civ. Proc., former § 1962, subd. 6), (2) pleading that the pueblo right was based on Spanish and Mexican law and (3) requesting that the trial court take judicial notice of Spanish and Mexican law. Plaintiff replies that its res judicata claim was raised in its demurrer to these defendants' answer and cross-complaint, which was overruled. In any event, the water rights of the respective parties based upon the doctrines of res judicata, law of the case and/or stare decisis were expressly put in issue by the pretrial conference order, which superseded any inconsistent pleading. (Cal Rules of Court, rule 216.) Defendants Glendale and Burbank contend that the declaration of the pueblo right in the Glendale judgment is not res judicata because of changes in the factual circumstances. The two changes relied upon are (1) the urbanization of the valley fill areas and some of the hill areas of the ULARA and (2) the disappearance of surplus in the underground water supply. In 1940, at the time the trial court's judgment was rendered in Glendale, the Sylmar subarea and the plaintiff's portion of the San Fernando subarea were predominantly rural and agricultural. Before the trial of the present action, most of the valley fill areas had become urban and highly developed land. Defendants Glendale and Burbank fail to point out, however, any specific relevance of such changes to the legal effect to be given to the prior judicial declaration of plaintiff's pueblo water right. Urbanization was anticipated long before the Glendale action. The clearest indication of this is the fact that most of the San Fernando Valley was annexed to Los Angeles in May 1915. The annexation included the Sylmar subarea and most of the San Fernando subarea outside the territories of the three defendant cities. The change from agricultural to urban uses has been more marked in the Los Angeles portion of the ULARA than in the Cities of Glendale and Burbank. No reason appears why this anticipated shift in the use of delivered water from agricultural irrigation to domestic purposes should detract from the weight to be given the prior adjudication of the pueblo right. Since domestic use is declared by law to be a higher use than irrigation (Wat. Code, § 106) the proportionate increase in domestic uses within Los Angeles territory, if relevant at all, may serve to enhance and not to diminish the public importance of the water rights protecting plaintiff's municipal supply. Another factual change relied upon by defendants  disappearance of surplus in the underground water supply  affects our determination of such issues as the existence of prescriptive rights and the nature of the relief which should be granted but does not alter the effect to be given Glendale's declaration of the existence of plaintiff's pueblo water right. Defendants contend that application of res judicata with respect to Glendale's determination of the pueblo right is precluded by an intervening change of law. This contention might have merit if the change of law were relevant to the issue on which res judicata is to operate. (See Pacific Tel. & Tel. Co. v. City & County of San Francisco (1961) 197 Cal. App.2d 133, 158 [17 Cal. Rptr. 687].) However, the only change of law which defendants point to is the decision in Pasadena ( City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, supra, 33 Cal.2d 908). That decision does not determine or even discuss the pueblo right but deals with prescriptive rights in the waters of an underground basin. Regardless of any effect that decision might have had on the creation of prescriptive rights to water claimed under a pueblo right, it is clear that it does not affect the issue on which res judicata is asserted here, to wit, the existence of the pueblo right in the first place. Additional objections by defendants Glendale and Burbank to the application of res judicata may conveniently be considered together. These objections are: (1) that the res judicata objective of preventing vexatious and expensive litigation (see O'Connor v. O'Leary (1967) 247 Cal. App.2d 646, 650 [56 Cal. Rptr. 1]) cannot be accomplished here because the presence of numerous other defendants to whom res judicata does not apply necessitated the relitigation of the pueblo right at the trial; (2) that the res judicata rule should be relaxed where great public interests are involved; (3) that the evidence at the trial supported the findings of the trial court that the pueblo right is without foundation, and therefore to establish its existence by res judicata would defeat the ends of justice; and (4) that to establish the pueblo right as to defendants Glendale and Burbank by means of res judicata and then to hold that there is no pueblo right as against the other defendants would result in inconsistent judgments. All four of these additional objections must be considered in light of this court's historic treatment of the existence of plaintiff's pueblo right as a proposition of law rather than of fact. This treatment is most strikingly illustrated by City of San Diego v. Cuyamaca Water Co. (1930) 209 Cal. 105 [287 P. 475], in which this court relied on its earlier decisions upholding the pueblo right of Los Angeles in the waters of the Los Angeles River to hold as a matter of law that the City of San Diego has a similar pueblo right in the waters of the San Diego River. [15] Refusing to consider arguments to the contrary based on Spanish-Mexican history and law, we declared that by virtue of the prior line of cases the existence of a prior right of pueblos and their successors to use the waters of rivers passing through the pueblo territory as far as necessary for ordinary municipal purposes and for the use of their inhabitants was no longer an open question and had long since become a rule of property in this state, which at this late date in the history and development of those municipalities which became the successors of such pueblos we are not permitted, under the rule of stare decisis, to disturb. (209 Cal. at p. 122.) Similarly, in Glendale we did not examine the factual historical basis for the existence of a pueblo right but commenced our discussion of the issue by declaring: It has long been established that as successor to the pueblo of Los Angeles, the city of Los Angeles has a right, superior to that of a riparian or an appropriator, to satisfy its needs from the waters of the Los Angeles River. (Citations.) (23 Cal.2d at p. 73.) (See also City of Los Angeles v. Hunter (1909) 156 Cal. 603, 608 [105 P. 755]; City of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles Farming & Milling Co. (1908) 152 Cal. 645, 652 [93 P. 869, 1135], writ of error dism., 217 U.S. 217 [54 L.Ed. 736, 30 S.Ct. 452]; City of Los Angeles v. Pomeroy, supra (1899) 124 Cal. 597, 641, writ of error dism. sub nom. Hooker v. Los Angeles, 188 U.S. 314 [47 L.Ed. 487, 23 S.Ct. 395].) (2) The res judicata effect of the prior determination between the parties of a question of law may differ from the effect of such prior determination of a question of fact. This court observed in Louis Stores, Inc. v. Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (1962) 57 Cal.2d 749, 757 [22 Cal. Rptr. 14, 371 P.2d 758], as follows: An important qualification of the doctrine of collateral estoppel is set forth in section 70 of the Restatement of Judgments, which reads as follows: `Where a question of law essential to the judgment is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final personal judgment, the determination is not conclusive between the parties in a subsequent action on a different cause of action, except where both causes of action arose out of the same subject matter or transaction; and in any event it is not conclusive if injustice would result.' (Italics added.) Comment f to this section explains: `The determination of a question of law by a judgment in an action is not conclusive between the parties in a subsequent action on a different cause of action, even though both causes of action arose out of the same subject matter or transaction, if it would be unjust to one of the parties or to third persons to apply one rule of law in subsequent actions between the same parties and to apply a different rule of law between other persons.' (Italics added.) The conclusion and reasoning of the Restatement find support in United States v. Stone & Downer Co., 274 U.S. 225, 235-237 [47 S.Ct. 616, 71 L.Ed. 1013]. (See also Cochran v. Union Lumber Co. (1972) 26 Cal. App.3d 423, 427-428 [102 Cal. Rptr. 632].) The Louis Stores opinion also states that the public interest attached to the resolution of a question of law may require that it be determined without restriction from the collateral estoppel effect of prior litigation. (57 Cal.2d at p. 758.) These principles apply to our consideration in this case of the legal issue of the existence of plaintiff's claimed pueblo right. If we were to decide that the prior decisions declaring the existence of such a right should no longer be followed with respect to the defendants who were not parties to Glendale, it would be unjust to hold defendants Glendale and Burbank bound to the pueblo right solely because of the doctrine of collateral estoppel. Another reason for disregarding collateral estoppel under such circumstances would be the public interest attaching to the proper determination of the conflicting claims of major public entities to water resources capable of furnishing substantial portions of their respective water needs. Accordingly we must determine whether the pueblo right exists for reasons other than collateral estoppel and res judicata.