Opinion ID: 2590136
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cardozo Appellants

Text: After concluding that several Cardozo deeds had not reserved riparian rights on behalf of the Cardozo appellants, the Court of Appeal nevertheless disputed the trial court's finding that they had no overlying rights. Here, the Court of Appeal reasoned, overlying rights are a property right appurtenant to the land, and are based on ownership. [Citations.] Although limited to the amount needed for beneficial use, irrigation for agriculture is clearly such a use, and respondents did not claim otherwise. [Citations.] After pointing out that overlying rights are dependent on land ownership over groundwater, and are exercised by extracting and using that water, the Court of Appeal concluded: Having shown ownership, extraction and beneficial use of the underground water here, the Cardozo Appellants established overlying rights, and the contrary finding of the trial court is without evidentiary or legal support. [¶] ... [¶] We repeat the guiding principle: `Under California law, [p]roper overlying use ... is paramount, and the right of an appropriator, being limited to the amount of the surplus, must yield to that of the overlying owner in the event of a shortage unless the appropriator has gained prescriptive rights through the taking of nonsurplus waters.  [Citation.]' ( Hi-Desert County Water Dist. v. Blue Skies Country Club, Inc., supra, 23 Cal.App.4th 1723, 1730-1731, 28 Cal.Rptr.2d 909, italics added, original italics omitted.) Thus, while the rights of all overlying owners in a groundwater basin are correlative and subject to cutbacks when the basin is overdrafted, overlying rights are superior to appropriative rights. Here, the trial court did not attempt to determine the priority of water rights, and merely allocated pumping rights based on prior production. This approach elevates the rights of appropriators and those producing without any claim of right to the same status as the rights of riparians and overlying owners. The trial court erred in doing so. Although the Court of Appeal agreed with the Cardozo appellants in doubting the legal propriety of some aspects of the physical solution, the court did not agree that it should reverse the entire judgment without regard to the rights of the stipulating parties. The Court of Appeal explained, While we share the Cardozo Appellants' doubts as to the legal propriety of various aspects of the trial court's physical solution, such as allowing transfer of water produced in accordance with riparian or overlying rights to nonriparian or nonoverlying lands, we do not need to consider those aspects of the physical solution. We see no reason why the parties cannot stipulate to a judgment incorporating the physical solution, nor do we see any reason why a stipulated judgment entered into by a large number of water producers in the Mojave Basin should be totally reversed when the rights of the Cardozo Appellants can be fully protected by appropriate trial court orders on remand. [Citations.] ... [¶] Thus, we protect the rights of the Cardozo Appellants while also respecting the rights of the stipulating parties to agree to a judgment which waives or alters their water rights in a manner which they believe to be in their best interest. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court judgment against the Cardozo appellants, concluding that the trial court could not ignore their preexisting legal water rights. The court did recognize, however, that the stipulating parties could agree to be bound by the physical solution regardless of any water rights they may have had. At the same time, the Court of Appeal concluded: [A]ny person or entity that produced more than a minimal amount of water in the 1986-1990 period was allowed to stipulate to the judgment, regardless of whether they had any provable water rights. Essentially, they could waive their existing water rights and agree to be bound by the terms of the stipulated judgment, so long as the rights of the nonstipulating parties were respected. [Citation.] The Court of Appeal directed the trial court to exclude the Cardozo appellants from the judgment and to grant them injunctive relief protecting their overlying water rights to the current and prospective reasonable and beneficial need for water on their respective properties. The Court of Appeal also reversed the trial court's May 6, 1996, award of costs to the respondents as the prevailing parties against the Cardozo appellants. The court reasoned that because the Cardozo appellants should have been excluded from the judgment, respondents were no longer prevailing parties. It also directed the trial court to order a refund of any assessments the Cardozo appellants paid under the judgment pending appeal. [14] In all other respects, the court affirmed the trial court judgment as to those appellants. Respondents principally disagree with the Court of Appeal's conclusion that the trial court erred in ignoring the Cardozo appellants' legal water rights in its equitable physical solution and judgment. They initially contend that the Court of Appeal's resolution of the Cardozo appellants' appeal gives those parties the right to extract an unlimited amount of water from the basin. We disagree. When the water is insufficient, overlying owners are limited to their proportionate fair share of the total amount available based upon [their] reasonable need[s]. ( Teliachapi-Cummings County Water Dist. v. Armstrong (1975) 49 Cal.App.3d 992, 1001, 122 Cal.Rptr. 918.) Respondents also argue that overlying pumpers in an overdrafted basin should be required to file an action to adjudicate groundwater rights at the first indication of substantial growth in the area. However, overlying pumpers are not under an affirmative duty to adjudicate their groundwater rights, because they retain them by pumping. ( City of San Fernando, supra, 14 Cal.3d at p. 293, fn. 100, 123 Cal.Rptr. 1, 537 P.2d 1250; Hi-Desert County Water Dist, supra, 23 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1731-1732, 28 Cal.Rptr.2d 909.) As overlying owners, the Cardozo appellants have the right to pump water from the ground underneath their respective lands for use on their lands. The overlying right is correlative and is therefore defined in relation to other overlying water right holders in the basin. In the event of water supply shortage, overlying users have priority over appropriative users. ( City of Pasadena, supra, 33 Cal.2d at p. 926, 207 P.2d 17.) The Court of Appeal properly recognized that the Cardozo appellants retained their overlying rights by pumping, and that no claim of prescription had been asserted to reduce those retained overlying rights. Likewise, no precedent exists for requiring an overlying user to file an action to protect its right to pump groundwater. The laches doctrine did not bar a plaintiffs action, for example, even where defendant cities increased their pumping of an overdrafted water supply long before the action commenced, and development relied on the new water production in the interval. ( Orange County Water District v. City of Riverside (1959) 173 Cal.App.2d 137, 219-220, 343 P.2d 450.)