Court Opinion

ID: 9828696
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 18:37:50.065499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:51.949796
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
We desire to refer to only one part of plaintiff in error’s motion for rehearing. Under the first proposition in the motion reference is made to articles 7622 and 7765 of our Revised Civil Statutes 1925, and in the argument under said proposition reference is made to article 7741, of our Statutes 1925, and appellant then remarks that the conclusion would seem to be absolutely inescapable that appellee district is simply a conservation and reclamation company under the law for the sole purpose of supplying water to the lands of its territory and the obligation and duty devolved upon it to furnish the water itself or arrange to have it done by the United States or some other' responsible contractor.
It is further suggested that the twq con*822tracts on their face disclose that they were entered into by appellee district for the express purpose of co-operating with the United States in the accomplishment of the purpose for which it was organized.
We concur in what is there said. Appel-lee was organized for the specific purpose of furnishing water to irrigate the lands within the district, and for that purpose entered into the two contracts with the United States under the provisions of the latter portion of section 21, c. 87, General Laws of the Thirty-Fifth Legislature 1917, p. 179, now article 7653, Rev. St. 1925. We stated the substance of the article in the original opinion.
The duties and powers given irrigation districts under the above article of the statute must not, however, be confused with the authority given irrigation districts by section 24 of e. 77, 36th Leg., 2d Called Sess., p. 227, amending section 24, c. 87, General Laws of the Regular Session of the Thirty-Fifth Legislature, p. 180, now article 7656, of our present statutes, nor section 108, c. 28, Acts 2d Galled Sess., 36th Leg., 1919, p. 74, and now article 7765 and related articles. Article 7656 empowers districts created under the provisions of the act to itself construct the irrigation system and all improvements required to irrigate the lands in the district.
Article 7765 authorizes all districts organized under the provisions of the chapter above referred to, and acting under and through its board of directors, to themselves construct all works and improvements necessary for die irrigation of lands in said districts, and to supply, deliver, and sell water for the purposes therein stated, the directors of such district, subject to the provisions of that chapter, to have full authority to manage the districts and the business of such districts for the purpose of carrying out the purposes of the organization.
It will be seen on analysis of the several provisions of our statutes that, while the purpose of the law in creating the water districts are similar, each acting under a board of directors, each board of directors doing for its district or districts the things it is specially authorized to do in the construction of a water system, and the distribution and use of the water therefrom, there is this difference: Acting under article 7653, the district was authorized to, and it is alleged did, contract with the United States to construct, operate, and maintain an irrigation system for the delivery and distribution of water from and under such system. Under that contract the United States was acting solely for itself as one of the contracting parties, and not for the district, acting under the said article and the Federal Reclamation Act, rules, and regulations, and using its own money in constructing, operating, and maintaining the irrigation system; the district acting under said article for itself, and not fot the United States, as one of the parties to the contract; each of the contracting parties for itself contracting and assuming to do what each could do under the said article of the statute and under the Federal Reclamation Act and the rules and regulations of the Secretary of the Interior.
There is nothing, as we view it, in the state or federal laws under which the United States and the district were acting, or in the contracts entered into, which show a joint undertaking and obligation, or joint acting together, that would or could make either liable for a negligent failure of the other contracting party to do the things it had contracted to do. Now, under the other articles of the statute referred to, where the district itself was authorized to and did construct its irrigation system, and, was operating and maintaining it in the distribution of the water to the lands under its system, the district might be liable for a negligent failure to perform its duty and undertaking; but such is not this case. Appellant has brought his suit against the district, alleging contracts with the United States in the construction, operation, and maintenance of the water system, under the water system constructed, operated, and maintained by the United States, and allege a joint undertaking and obligation in the operation and maintenance of the system. In a sense, the United States and the district were acting together in contracting that the United States would construct, operate, and maintain the water system, and that the district would do the things authorized and necessary to be done to reimburse the United States for the money expended, but, as we view it, in no other sense.
The motion is overruled.