Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Effect of Surplus on Running of Prescriptive Period

Text: In the Sylmar basin, the trial court found that prior to the filing of the complaint at the end of the water year 1954-1955, overdraft existed continuously from 1936-1937 through 1941-1942 and from 1944-1945 through 1953-1954 but that conversely surplus existed in 1942-1943, 1943-1944 and 1954-1955. Prescriptive rights in the basin were awarded to plaintiff, defendant City of San Fernando and two private defendants based on the highest continuous annual production of water for beneficial use in any five (5) year period subsequent to the commencement of overdraft and prior to the filing of the complaint by each of the parties from the Sylmar basin as to which there has been no cessation of use by it during any subsequent continuous five (5) year period. (Italics added.) From this formula it appears that the award of prescriptive rights may have been based on extractions of water during a continuous five-year period which included years of surplus. [89] (21) Years of surplus should not be included in the prescriptive period because the taking of surplus water cannot invade the basin water rights of others. ( City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, supra, 33 Cal.2d at pp. 926-927; City of L.A. v. City of Glendale, supra, 23 Cal.2d at p. 79.) Moreover, since adverse taking is impossible during surplus years their occurrence breaks the continuity required for the running of a prescriptive period. (See Armstrong v. Payne (1922) 188 Cal. 585, 596-597 [206 P. 638].) Accordingly, the prescriptive period for ground basin water rights must consist of five consecutive years of overdraft. Defendants argue that the trial court's formula literally follows the wording of the findings underlying the judgment affirmed in Pasadena, and that the occurrence of two surplus years (1934-1935 and 1936-1937) between the commencement of overdraft (1913-1914) and the filing of the Pasadena complaint (1937) indicates that the inclusion of surplus years in the prescriptive period was approved in that decision. (See 33 Cal.2d at p. 922.) There is no indication in Pasadena that the appellant objected to the inclusion of any particular year or years in the prescriptive periods used by the trial court in its computations or that the briefs or record on appeal disclosed which years were included. We therefore cannot presume that the Pasadena court approved a computation violative of the principles announced in its own decision. (See 33 Cal.2d at p. 926.)