Opinion ID: 1453368
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the status of the eskelsens' 1974 and 1983 applications

Text: Given the fact that no water rights were transferred by the 1933 deed from the Town to Davenport, the Eskelsens' claim to pre-1933 water rights cannot prevail. Any claim to water rights by the Eskelsens, therefore, must depend upon an application to appropriate filed with the state engineer after 1933 pursuant to sections 73-3-1 and -2 of the Utah Code. [4] Two such applications were in fact filed, one for 0.015 second foot (6.5 gallons per minute) of water with a priority date of April 8, 1974, and another for 0.1 second foot (45 gallons per minute) of water with a priority date of October 14, 1983. The trial court's decree does not mention the 1974 application. On appeal, the Eskelsens [5] allege that this omission is obviously error. The record, however, indicates that the 1974 application may have been filed merely as a restatement of one of the half interests in Davis's 1957 diligence claim and not as a separate or new claim at all. The testimony of the person who filed the application (Neil Dwayne Norman) indicates that his purpose was to transfer his interest in the Davis diligence claim from one home to another. He stated that he was not seeking to appropriate an additional water right. In terms of quantity, this explanation makes sense; half of the diligence claim would be 6 gallons of water per minute, which is an amount similar to that stated in the 1974 application. Although it appears that the trial court's omission of the 1974 application from its decree was probably based on a finding that it was not a separate claim, the court never made a formal finding to that effect. We therefore remand this issue for the trial court to make a specific finding as to the status of the 1974 application. If the court concludes that the application was merely a restatement of the diligence claim, then pursuant to the foregoing discussion, the Eskelsens hold no rights under that application. If, on the other hand, the court concludes that the 1974 application is in fact a separate and new claim, then the priority of the Eskelsens' rights thereunder should be determined in the same manner as their rights under the 1983 application. On October 1, 1983, the Eskelsens purchased their interest in the subject land. Within two weeks, they filed an application with the state engineer to appropriate 0.1 second foot (45 gallons per minute) of water. At that time, the Town was already in the process of making improvements to its collection system. The Eskelsens had knowledge of the improvements and the fact that the Town was claiming water rights in the spring area. The state engineer approved the Eskelsens' application subject to the Town's prior rights. [6] The trial court found that the Eskelsens' 1983 application is valid but that the right secured thereby is subject to the Town's claim and the conditions of the state engineer's approval. The trial court's finding that the Eskelsens have a valid water right under their 1983 application is correct. Moreover, the Eskelsens may have a water right under the 1974 application, as discussed earlier. The priority of any water right held by the Eskelsens, however, is subject to the rights of any senior appropriators under section 73-3-21 of the Utah Code. The trial court held that the Town holds such a senior water right in 1/3 second foot. The Eskelsens argue that the Town has failed to establish water use by its predecessors in interest before 1903 and that even if the evidence does support such a use, the Town forfeited part of its right by leasing water in violation of the Utah Constitution. We address each of these arguments in turn.
Before the Town acquired the subject property, its predecessors in interest filed no notice of new or existing water rights with the state engineer. The Town itself filed no notice with that office until January 1986, when it filed a Statement of Water User's Claim asserting a priority date of 1897. The Town's 1986 statement was not an application to appropriate a new water right pursuant to sections 73-3-1 and -2 of the Utah Code. Nor was it a notice of a pre-1903 diligence claim pursuant to section 73-5-13. The 1986 statement was, rather, filed pursuant to section 73-4-5 as a part of the general adjudication from which this appeal is taken. [7] Because neither the Town nor its predecessors ever filed a statutory application to appropriate with the state engineer, whatever water right the Town has must necessarily rest upon appropriation by beneficial use before 1903. [8] The trial court concluded that the Town has a valid water right in 1/3 second foot dating back to 1897. On appeal, the Eskelsens and Norman argue that there is no competent evidence to support the trial court's finding of pre-1903 water use by the Town's predecessors. Specifically, they assert that there is no testimony in the record as to the use of the spring water before that date in any definite quantity, on any definitely described land, for any specified purpose, or during any specified period of the year. The following is a brief review of the relevant evidence. In 1897, the Stokes family received title to a 160-acre tract pursuant to a United States patent. The trial court found that the Stokeses developed and diverted water from a spring area located on the property. The court states, While no one testified to all the uses made of the water by the original land owners, the records indicate that irrigation, and domestic, household and stock watering uses were made. The trial court relies on records of the Box Elder County Recorder's Office indicating that as early as 1892 the Stokes family entered into contracts with Stark Brothers for the purchase of trees for an orchard containing 50 acres. In addition, the Town introduced two 1983 affidavits. In one, Phillip Douglas Quayle, aged 73, stated he remembered that when he was a young man a family by the name of Stokes owned land on the east bench of the Town of Perry: I recall that the Stokes Family developed certain springs, made catch basins, and used the water to irrigate crop land, stock, orchards and grapes. I was informed that they began developing their springs prior to the 1900s. In a similar affidavit, Lisle Larsen stated, [The Stokes family] used this water continuously I am told from prior to 1900 to the time they sold the property to the Town of Perry in 1917. The Eskelsens and Norman argue that these affidavits do not provide probative evidence because of their indefiniteness and their basis in hearsay. We must assume that the trial court took into account the nature of the evidence presented to it and based its conclusion on the weight of the evidence as a whole. As to the quantity of water used prior to 1903, testimony at trial by former employees of the Town indicated that the flow of water in the 1960s was 1/3 of a second foot. Also, a measurement made in July 1984 after improvements were made to the Town's water system indicates that the flow at that time was 130 gallons per minute or 0.29 second foot, and there were indications that at other times the flow was considerably higher. The Eskelsens correctly assert that the evidence as to the Stokeses' use of a given quantity of water from the spring area before 1903 is vague. In the past, this court has held that vague and indefinite evidence might be insufficient to establish pre-1903 beneficial water use. See Mt. Olivet Cemetery Ass'n v. Salt Lake City, 65 Utah 193, 235 P. 876, 878 (1925); Richfield Cottonwood Irr. Co. v. City of Richfield, 84 Utah 107, 34 P.2d 945, 949 (1934). Those cases, however, were decided many years ago, when it was realistic to expect that more direct and specific evidence about pre-1903 water use should be available. In 1991, however, it would be overly burdensome and unrealistic for us to require a water user to produce unquestionable, overwhelmingly clear evidence of water use. Rigid standards regarding proof of amounts would be virtually insurmountable barriers to old claims. In this case, the Town presented the best information available, and the Eskelsens did not present any evidence in rebuttal. The evidence does establish pre-1903 water use with a reasonable certainty. Balancing the equities and taking into account the amount of time that has passed, we conclude that the showing was sufficient to support the trial court's conclusion that the Town's water right in 1/3 second foot was initiated prior to 1903.
In May 1964, tests showed that the water from the spring area was contaminated, and the Town discontinued its general culinary use of the water. The Town apparently did not resume the use of the water in its culinary water distribution system until 1984, when it constructed a new water collection system. The trial court found, however, that between 1964 and 1984 the Town's water continued to be delivered to two homes for culinary use and that the remainder was leased to one Elmer Matthews for irrigation. The Eskelsens assert that by discontinuing general culinary use of the spring water, the Town lost a part of its water right under the terms of section 73-1-4 of the Utah Code and article XI, section 6 of the Utah Constitution, leaving that water open for appropriation by another user. [9] The relevant language of the Utah Code provides that a water right not used for five years ceases unless the appropriator files an application for an extension of time with the state engineer. Utah Code Ann. § 73-1-4. [10] At the same time, the Utah Constitution provides that a municipal corporation may not directly or indirectly, lease, sell, alien or dispose of any ... water rights. Utah Const. art. XI, § 6 (emphasis added). In Nephi City v. Hansen, 779 P.2d 673 (Utah 1989), this court held that despite the language of article XI, section 6, a municipal corporation can lose its water rights through statutory forfeiture. We held that there is no conflict between article XI, section 6 and section 73-1-4 because the constitution prohibits only the voluntary, intentional disposition of water rights, whereas a forfeiture under section 73-1-4 is involuntary. Id. at 674-75. Although relevant, Nephi City does not address the specific question presented here, i.e., whether a municipal corporation forfeits its water rights under the terms of section 73-1-4 of the Utah Code if it leases, sells, alienates, or disposes of its water rights in contravention of article XI, section 6 of the Utah Constitution. In this case, there is evidence to support the trial court's factual finding that part of the Town's water right was leased and used for irrigation between 1964 and 1984. The trial court failed, however, to make a legal conclusion regarding the impact of article XI, section 6 on its finding. Under the plain language of that constitutional provision and our decision in Nephi City, the Town's leasing of its water rights was prohibited, but we still must determine the effect of the prohibited lease on the Town's long-term interest in the water right. An appropriative water right depends on beneficial use for its continued validity. See Utah Code Ann. § 73-1-3 (Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of all rights to the use of water in this state.); Mt. Olivet Cemetery Ass'n v. Salt Lake City, 65 Utah 193, 235 P. 876, 878 (1925) (The lapse of 30 years' time during which no beneficial use of water has been shown forecloses the claim of the city to the use of [the water]. (emphasis added)). In Utah, [t]he state is ... vitally interested in seeing that none of the waters are allowed to run to waste or go without being applied to a beneficial use for any great number of years. Deseret Live Stock Co. v. Hooppiania, 66 Utah 25, 239 P. 479, 481 (1925). To protect this state interest, the legislature has provided that a water right can be lost for nonuse or abandonment. Utah Code Ann. § 73-1-4. The judicial role in maintaining the system of beneficial use, and implicitly the place of water in the economy of our state, is to require strict adherence to the statutory sanctions. Baugh v. Criddle, 19 Utah 2d 361, 431 P.2d 790, 791 (1967). We have held that a departure from this principle of strict adherence is justified only in a rare and highly equitable case. Id. 431 P.2d at 791-92. The facts in this case do not present an obvious instance of statutory forfeiture for abandonment and nonuse. Although the Town's leasing of its water right violated the state constitution, it does not follow that the action should work a statutory forfeiture of the Town's water right. The statute provides that a water right ceases when the appropriator ceases to use it. Utah Code Ann. § 73-1-4. In this case, the Town did not cease to use the water; instead, it used the water for an unconstitutional purpose. The constitutional violation, however, does not necessarily or logically satisfy the statutory requirements for forfeiture, which are concerned with entirely different policy considerations. The water in this case was continuously applied to a beneficial use from which the Town also benefitted, even though it violated the constitution in acquiring the benefit. [11] Therefore, without modifying our general principle of strict adherence to the statutory sanctions requiring forfeiture for the nonuse of a water right, we affirm the trial court's conclusion that there was no statutory forfeiture of the Town's water rights on the facts of this case. In conclusion, we affirm the trial court's decree to the extent it concludes that (1) the Eskelsens and Norman have no interest in water rights claimed pursuant to Ruby Davis's 1957 notice of diligence claim, and (2) the Eskelsens' 1983 application to appropriate water rights is valid but subject to a senior right in the Town to 1/3 second foot of water and subject to the conditions of the state engineer's memorandum decision dated April 27, 1984. [12] The question of the status of the 1974 application is remanded for a specific factual determination consistent with this opinion. HALL, C.J., HOWE, Associate C.J., and STEWART and ZIMMERMAN, JJ., concur.