Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Appeal from Judgment for Reference Expense

Text: In addition to the appeal from the principal judgment, plaintiff appeals from a judgment in favor of the State Water Resources Control Board determining the board's total expenses as referee to be $493,264 and apportioning $344,547 of this expense against plaintiff, $69,473 against defendant Glendale, $66,816 against defendant Burbank, and $12,428 against former defendants who were no longer before the court but had previously paid their apportioned amount under orders for interim payments. Plaintiff does not dispute the amount of the total expense but contends that its apportioned share of the total is excessive. Prior to the judgment, the expense had been equitably apportioned by the board against the parties to the suit (Wat. Code, § 2043) as follows: One half, or $246,632 was apportioned against plaintiff and the other half was apportioned among the defendants in proportion to their average annual extractions from the ULARA during the five years preceding commencement of the action. Plaintiff and defendants filed objections to the board's apportionment (Wat. Code, § 2045) and after hearing the objections the court entered the judgment in accordance with the apportionment ... the court deems equitable (Wat. Code, § 2048). The judgment states that the referee's total expense other than the amount charged to the former defendants is apportioned against defendants Glendale and Burbank in the proportion that their respective mutually prescriptive rights bear to the total mutually prescriptive rights in the [ULARA] as declared by the judgment on the merits and that the balance of the referee's expense is apportioned against plaintiff. Plaintiff complains that the trial court erred in requiring plaintiff to bear the share of the expense seemingly allocable under the trial court's formula to San Fernando, Crescenta Valley County Water District and the private defendants and in refusing to admit evidence purporting to show that valuable assistance had been rendered to the referee by plaintiff in furtherance of the reference. We need not consider these objections. Amounts which the judgment for reference expense expressly required the parties to pay for the services ordered to be performed by the water board as referee appointed by the court will be includible in the costs which may be allowed in the judgment on the merits pursuant to section 1032 of the Code of Civil Procedure. ( Moss v. Underwriters' Report, Inc. (1938) 12 Cal.2d 266, 274 [83 P.2d 503].) The purpose of the statutory scheme for determination, apportionment and payment of reference expenses (Wat. Code, §§ 2040-2043, 2045-2048) is to allocate immediate responsibility for timely reimbursement of the board's outlay in conducting the reference and not to interfere with the rules for recovery of costs in civil actions. [104] Thus, any error in the apportionment under the judgment for reference expense could be corrected by an appropriate award of costs under the principal judgment. These circumstances precluded any prejudice to plaintiff from the apportionment in the judgment for reference expense. [105] The judgment for the expense of the State Water Resources Control Board, successor to the State Water Rights Board, as referee is affirmed. The principal judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Each party shall bear its own costs on appeal.