Conrad v. Arrowhead Hot Springs Hotel Co.

Citations

• 103 Cal. 399
• 37 P. 386
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 788

Syllabus

<p>Water Rights—Pollution of Stream by Riparian Owner—Subsequent Appropriation.—Where a hotel company, which is a riparian owner upon an unnavigable stream, has, for a period of ten years, drained its refuse matter by means of sewers and pipes into the stream, whereby the waters thereof have been polluted so that they are unfit for drinking or any domestic purpose, a subsequent locator who diverts the water from the stream at a point below the hotel, for domestic purposes, and for the irrigation of nonriparian lands, cannot complain of the pollution of the stream.</p> <p>Id.—Rights of Appropriators.—Locators and appropriators of the waters of a stream have no rights antecedent to the date of their location; and, if others have, prior to their location, decreased the quantity of the water flowing in the stream, or caused a deterioration of its quality, the subsequent locator cannot complain.</p> <p>Id.—Nuisance—Equality of Rights—Priority of User of Stream.— The rule that a person who constructs a drain or cesspool upon his own premises, and uses it for his own purposes, is bound to keep the filth collected there from becoming a nuisance to his neighbors, applies between parties who have equal rights to the enjoyment of their own property, but does not apply in the case of appropriators of running water where there is no mutuality of right, and their titles or rights are not coextensive as to time, or equal in rank; but the second appropriator simply takes the residuum in quality, subject to the changed conditions existing by reason of the prior user.</p>