City of Santa Cruz v. Enright

Citations

• 95 Cal. 105
• 30 P. 197
• 1892 Cal. LEXIS 792

Syllabus

<p>Eminent Domain — Condemning Use op Water — Municipal Corporations— Constitutional Law — General Laws. — Section 1001 of the Civil Code and section 1238 of the Code of Civil Procedure providing for the acquisition of private property by “any person, without further legislative action,” through the exercise of the right of eminent domain, for the use of “canals, aqueducts, flumes, ditches, or pipes for conducting water for the use of the inhabitants of any county, incorporated city, or city and county, village, or town,” are general laws within the meaning of section 6 of article XI. of the constitution, providing that cities shall be subject to and controlled by general laws, and are applicable to municipal corporations formed before, as well as to those formed after, the adoption of the constitution of 1879.</p> <p>Id.—Necessity — Distance op Supply — Nearer Waters Owned by Water Company—Instructions.—Where the evidence shows that the waters of a creek from which a water company receives its supply are insufficient in quantity to supply the wants of the inhabitants of a city to which the company furnishes the water, during the summer months, and a portion of them are also inferior in quality, and that the population of the city is steadily increasing, and that the waters of the stream sought to be condemned by the city are excellent in quality, and abundant in quantity, and of sufficient elevation, the fact that the stream sought to be taken is further from the city than the streams from which the water company take their supply, although a matter to be considered, is not controlling upon the question of necessity, and where the instructions of the court as to the power to condemn, and the necessity claimed to exist, are correct, it is not error to refuse instructions predicated controllingly upon the question of distance, and upon the power of the city to condemn the waters owned by the water company.</p> <p>Id. — Water Rights — Private Lands — Riparian Ownershi