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

Heading: Pre-1903 Use of the Town's Water Right

Text: 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.