Opinion by
Dеfendants in error The Lower Latham Ditch Company, The Union Ditch Company and The Godfrey Ditch Company were plаintiffs below in a suit against the plaintiffs in error to enjoin defendant water officials from distributing water in a way claimed by the рlaintiffs to be detrimental to their interests.
The complaint sets up the adjudication of water rights in 1883, in Water District No. 2, by the Distriсt Court for the then County of Arapahoe, and the adjudication in said proceeding of certain priorities tо each of said plaintiffs; that there were also therein adjudicated certain other priorities including No. 24 аnd No. 14, the points of diversion of a part of which had been changed by decree of the said District Court to the headgate of said Bijou Irrigation
The complaint contained, also, allegations to the effect that only a part of priority No. 24 had ever beеn required for irrigating the lands to which it was to be applied, and that, to cause 40 second feet of said priority tо flow into the ditch of said Bijou Company at a low stage of water, will be to enlarge the use to that extent, to thе injury of plaintiffs.
Defendants in error The Weldon Valley Canal Company and The Fort Morgan Reservoir and Irrigation Company, on petitions setting forth substantially the same matters as are alleged in the complaint, were permitted tо intervene.
To the complaint and to the petitions in intervention, the defendants demurred, setting up, among other things, that the District Court of Weld County was without jurisdiction of the cause, because the matters set up in the complaint pertained to the adjudication of water rights, and could be heard only by the court in which the original adjudication deсree and the decree changing the points of diversion were entered.
The demurrers having been overruled, thе Bijou Irrigation Company and the Bijou Irrigation District filed their answers to said complaint and to the petitions in intervention.
The water officials stood on their demurrer and took no further part in the proceedings.
Replications аnd various motions were filed which need not be here considered.
The decree directed that copies of it be certified to the defendant water officials.
The' demurrer to the complaint challenged the jurisdiction of the District Court of Weld County on the ground that the relief sought required for its determination a piodification, at at least a construction of the original adjudication decree which was entered in thе District Court of Arapahoe County, now the City and County of Denver.
Under the rulings of this court, the demurrer should have been sustained.
In Weiland v. Catlin Company,
A" demurrer on the ground of want of jurisdiction was overruled, and on that ground this court reversed the judgment.
We there said:
“If the district court of Otero County has jurisdiction for this purpose, it must, as it did, construe the decree of the Bent County district court, and do, as it did, render*359 judgment directing the water officials to distribute the priority fixed by that deсree in harmony with such construction. Whether such construction and judgment are right or wrong is immaterial. The question is: When a сourt vested with jurisdiction to adjudicate water rights has exercised that authority and entered a decree, cаn another court of co-ordinate jurisdiction entertain a case the object of which is to determine whether the water officials have complied with its terms in the distribution of water? The statutes designate the district court vestеd with exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate priorities to the use of water for irrigation in a water district. When jurisdiction for that purpose-has attached and a decree is entered, the statutes on that subject necessarily inhibit any other court of co-ordinate jurisdiction from modifying, reviewing, or construing such decree. * * * Consequently, if a question arises between the owner of a priority fixed by a decree and water officials charged with the duty of distributing water under it, with respect to its meaning or effect it must be determined by the court entering the decree, and not by any other court of co-ordinate jurisdiction.”
That case was followed in Love v. Redden,
The case is governed by the two cases above cited.
The judgment is accordingly reversed, with directions to dismiss the cause.
Mr. Justice Allen not participating.