Hollett v. Davis

Citations

• 54 Wash. 326
• 103 P. 423
• 1909 Wash. LEXIS 995

Syllabus

<p>Waters and Water Courses — Springs—Riparian Rights — Statutes — Construction. Bal. Code, § 4114, giving the owner of land the use of waters from springs thereon, provided he can use them on his own premises, has no application to springs having sufficient flow to form water courses, and the common law rule governs riparian rights on such a water course.</p> <p>Same — Rights by Prescription- — -Use for Statutory Period. A prescriptive right to the use of water for irrigation purposes, diverted from its natural channel by an upper proprietor, is not acquired by a lower proprietor, where he and his predecessors in interest used the water for domestic and culinary purposes for five years, then for two years used it for watering stock, and then for eight years constantly used the water for the purposes of irrigation.</p> <p>Same — Diverted Waters — Right to Re-divert — Estoppel. An upper proprietor, by the diversion of a natural water course into another channel or creek for the period of thirty years, is estopped from preventing the flow of the waters in its new course, where it appears that during such time lower proprietors had acquired title and made valuable improvements bordering upon the creek relying on the flow of water for irrigation, and that without such irrigation their lands would be valueless, although their use had not been for the statutory prescriptive period.</p> <p>Same — Irrigation—Diversion of Waters. In an action to prevent the diversion of -waters used for irrigation, the court cannot make a division of the waters between the upper and lower proprietors where there is no evidence as .to the proportion to which each was entitled.</p>