Anderson v. Bassman

Citations

• 140 F. 14
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 3927

Syllabus

<p>1. Courts — United States Courts — Cases Arising under United States Statutes — Jurisdiction to Determine.</p> <p>One who has acquired a right to the use of water from a stream flowing through the public land for domestic or irrigation purposes, in accordance with the laws of the state, is protected therein by Rev. St. §§ 2339, 2340 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1437], and the jurisdiction of a federal court to determine the conflicting rights of parties is not affected by the fact that their lands and their points of diversion of the water are in different states.</p> <p>2. Wafers and Water Courses — Adverse Use.</p> <p>An adverse use of the waters of a stream to give a right to such use by prescription as against another user must have been to the detriment of the latter, and continued with his acquiescence during the full period of the statute of limitations under a claim of right. So long as there was such quantity of water in a stream that the use of a portion of it by defendants did not deprive plaintiffs of the quantity to which they were entitled, or so long as, when the quantity became insufficient, plaintiffs forcibly prevented its use by defendants, the statute did not run against an action by plaintiffs to establish a priority of right.</p> <p>3. Same — Users from Stream in Different States — Bights Determined.</p> <p>In California the common-law rule of riparian rights, and not that of prior appropriation, governs the right to use water from a stream for purposes of irrigation, each riparian owner having the right to make a reasonable use of a reasonable quantity of water on his land. In Nevada the rule of priority of appropriation governs without reference to whether or not the lands are riparian. Held, that riparian owners of lands on a stream in California and appropriators of waters for irrigation purposes from the same stream lower down in Nevada were equally protected in the rights given them by the laws of the respective states, both subject to th