(DOWNLOAD) "State Texas Et Al. v. Valmont Plantations Et Al." by Supreme Court of Texas * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State Texas Et Al. v. Valmont Plantations Et Al.
- Author : Supreme Court of Texas
- Release Date : January 29, 1961
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 105 KB
Description
This is a class action to determine whether, in the absence of specific grants of irrigation waters, Spanish and Mexican land grants along the Lower Rio Grande have appurtenant riparian irrigation rights. Broadly stated, it is a suit between appropriators and riparians. The State and numerous water districts assert their rights in the former category; owners of lands out of the original grants assert rights similar to those commonly called riparian rights. Both groups have appealed from the judgment. The trial court concluded that the laws of Spain when the grants were made, did not recognize a riparian right of irrigation, but required an irrigator to exhibit his title to irrigation waters. The riparians protest that conclusion. However, the trial court denied the claims of the appropriators and concluded that the law of Texas has erroneously been settled to the contrary. The appropriators protest that conclusion. The trial court then defined the watershed so narrowly that most of the riparian claims were also denied. There are other subsidiary issues, but the controlling question is whether the Spanish and Mexican laws recognized riparian rights to irrigate. The trial court properly denied the riparians plea in abatement for non-joinder of multiple up-river water diverters, because this is not a partition suit and the judgment is not binding upon non-parties as to their share of the river waters. Mud Creek Irr. Agr. & Mfg. Co. v. Vivian, 74 Tex. 170, 11 S.W. 1078; Wilson v. Reeves County Water Imp. Dist. No. 1, Tex.Civ.App., 256 S.W. 346; 1 Wiel, Water Rights in the Western States (3rd Ed.) 687-688.