Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: proceedings in trial court

Text: On September 30, 1955, the same day it initiated the present action, plaintiff filed a motion for modification of the judgment and for an injunction in its consolidated actions against the Cities of Glendale and Burbank in which a declaratory judgment in favor of plaintiff had been affirmed by this court in Glendale, supra, 23 Cal.2d 68, and in which jurisdiction had been retained to grant such additional relief as might be necessary (23 Cal.2d at p. 81). Judge Philip H. Richards denied the motion on two grounds: (1) that by seeking to enjoin defendants from taking water on the ground that the available quantity of water no longer exceeded plaintiff's needs the application for injunction raised issues of the quantities of the water supply and of the parties' respective needs and accordingly was beyond the scope of the jurisdiction retained under the declaratory judgment which dealt only with priorities in a ground basin containing more than enough water to satisfy the parties' needs, and (2) that since the same issues were being concurrently raised by commencement of the present case, the court in its discretion should in any event deny permission to raise them by reopening the prior actions involving only two of the present defendants (Glendale and Burbank). A subsequent similar application to reopen the prior cases and consolidate them with the present case was denied on similar grounds in May 1964. In the present action, after the pleadings were filed and the case was at issue, in 1958, Judge Virgil M. Airola referred the case to the State Water Rights Board (succeeded in 1967 by the State Water Resources Control Board, Wat. Code, § 1003.5) for investigation of and report on the physical facts. (Wat. Code, § 2001.) The referee was ordered to report on the geography and geology of the area, the available water resources, and the parties' respective supplies of and needs for water. The referee's report, consisting of two volumes plus two supplements, was completed in October 1964. Plaintiff objected to the reference order and has appealed from the judgment in favor of the referee, entered pursuant to Water Code section 2048, apportioning the reference expenses of $493,264 among the parties. By statute, the referee's report is prima facie evidence of the physical facts therein found. (Wat. Code, § 2019.) The accuracy of the referee's report remains substantially unchallenged but both plaintiff and defendants introduced vast amounts of other evidence on matters within the general scope of the referee's report. In September 1964, the case was assigned to Judge Edmund M. Moor. Extensive pretrial proceedings consuming 86 court days before Judge Airola and 18 days before Judge Moor culminated in a pretrial conference order of August 26, 1965. Trial began March 1, 1966 and continued for 181 court days until June 15, 1967. The trial judge's memorandum of decision (134 pages plus 174 pages of addenda) relating to the principal issues was filed October 30, 1967. After further proceedings, comprehensive findings of fact and conclusions of law were filed on March 14, 1968, and the judgment was entered the following day.