Arizona Copper Co. v. Gillespie

Syllabus

<p>In Arizona, by statute, all rivers, streams, and running waters are declared public, and may be used for purposes of milling, niining and irrigation. The first appropriator is first in right, to the extent necessary for his purposes; and neither the user for mining purposes nor the user for agricultural purposes is placed upon a higher plane than the other.</p> <p>Where users of waters are placed, as in Arizona, upon the same plane, the rights of lesser.users are not subordinated to those of greater users; nor is a wrong done by one to the other condoned because of the magnitude or importance either of the public or the private interests óf the former.</p> <p>Where one of- several users of waters is. wrongfully injuring the others ' there is a remedy either at law or in equity; the latter depending upon circumstances including the comparative injury of granting or refusing an injunction.</p> <p>Where, as in this case, the record does not show the damage which the ' injunction might cause the defendant, but does show that the interests' of complainant and others of his class might be irreparably injured by a continuance of the nuisance, equity-may- grant relief.</p> <p>The limitation of necessary use on the right of an appropriator of water applies to quality as well as quantity; and the right to use necessary water does not include the right to so destroy the quality of all the ' water not used as to continuously injure the property of the other appropriators.</p> <p>The maxim sig utere tuo ut alienum non Icedas applies in Arizona and elsewhere to the use of waters by one appropriator as against another. Although the nuisance may be a public one and others may be damaged thereby; one who shows that he suffers a special grievance net borne by the public, may maintain a separate action for equitable relief.</p> <p>In this case held, that the contamination of waters in Arizona by a copper plant constituted a nuisance as to the lower appropriators and, under the circ