Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: Separate Judgment for Reference Expenses

Text: The State Water Resources Control Board was entitled to reimbursement of expenses (but not to a fee) as referee. (Wat. Code, § 2040.) On August 31, 1967, pursuant to Water Code section 2043, the board (then the State Water Rights Board) filed with the trial court a statement that its total reference expenses were $493,264 and that it had made a formal finding that these expenses should be apportioned 50 percent against plaintiff and the balance against those defendants who appeared in the action without disclaimer in proportion to the average amount of water pumped annually by each such defendant during the five years preceding commencement of the action. On this basis, the apportionment was as follows: Los Angeles $246,632 San Fernando 11,075 Glendale 101,307 Burbank 97,754 Crescenta Valley 12,291 Other defendants 24,205 ________ $493,264 Plaintiff and defendants filed objections to the board's report which were orally argued. (Wat. Code, § 2045.) At the time that the court rendered its judgment on the merits, it rendered a separate judgment in favor of the board determining the total reference expenses to be as stated by the board but ordering a different apportionment. (Wat. Code, § 2048.) Under this judgment Glendale and Burbank were required to contribute to the reference expenses in the proportion that their respective mutually prescriptive rights bear to the total mutual prescriptive rights awarded by the judgment on the merits. No other defendants now before this court were required to contribute, but the interim partial payments previously made under Water Code section 2042 by former defendants who had been eliminated from the case were to be retained by the referee and were not to be refunded. The balance of the expense was to be paid by plaintiff. The amounts apportioned under this judgment were as follows: Los Angeles $344,547 Glendale 69,473 Burbank 66,816 Other defendants None before the court Former defendants 12,428 ________ $493,264 Plaintiff appeals from this judgment, objecting to the apportionment itself and to the court's refusal to receive evidence at the hearing on apportionment of the assistance rendered by plaintiff to the referee. The total amount of the referee's expense is not in issue. The judgment recites that $488,786 out of the total $493,264 has been paid and orders that out of the $97,480 for which judgment is entered against plaintiff, $93,002 shall be refunded to defendants in stated proportions. According to defendants' brief, the water board has received the entire amount due it under the judgment.