15 Mont. 153 | Mont. | 1894
— The trial court sustained the demurrer, evidently because it reached the conclusion that the complaint failed to state facts showing plaintiffs’ acquisition of an interest in said irrigating canal, or water therein conveyed, to the extent of twenty inches, as an appurtenance to plaintiffs’ eighty acres of land. In other words, the court, no doubt, concluded that the complaint failed to show that any such water right, as claimed by plaintiffs, was appurtenant to their said land when they acquired the same from defendant. Are the facts alleged, if admitted or established by proof, sufficient to warrant judgment declaring plaintiffs owners of an interest in said irrigating ditch or canal, and the waters therein carried, to the extent of twenty inches, accompanying such judgment with an injunction forbidding defendant from interfering with plain til's’ perpetual use of so much of the waters of said ditch ?
According to the allegations of the complaint, defendant, being the owner of a large quantity of arid land situate in Yellowstone county, about the 1st of May, 1882, commenced the construction of a large irrigating ditch or canal, about forty miles in length, thereby to appropriate water from the Yellowstone river, to make its said land available for agricultural purposes. It is further alleged that, at the time plaintiff
To adjudge plaintiffs the owners of an interest in defendant’s irrigating ditch, to the extent demanded, would, in effect, extend their acquisition to things beyond, and unconnected with, the property described in the conveyance, or the contract to convey; and that extension would be founded on parol evidence that certain representations were made by defendant as to its purpose of constructing such an irrigating canal to make water available to irrigate its lands — representations not even alleged to have been made to plaintiff when he purchased said
The allegation that plaintiffs enjoyed the use of twenty inches of water from said ditch since the season of 1884 does not constitute a plea of adverse possession, when read in connection with other facts shown by the complaint, to wit, that defendant is and has been proprietor and has exercised control and dominion over said irrigating canal since its construction.
If plaintiffs have enjoyed the use of twenty inches of water taken out of said ditch, as alleged, that enjoyment must have been by sufferance of defendant, who exercised dominion over the irrigating canal. If one fetches water to a place, and then, under such conditions, having control over the vessel wherein the water was conveyed, suffers another to partake thereof, can the latter claim that he is using adversely? Such is the situation shown by plaintiffs as to their use of said water, and a use under those circumstances is not adverse possession. If this were a case where plaintiffs, having shown their acquisition of said land, relying on representations of defendant that it would, by construction of an irrigating ditch, bring water into the vicinity of said laud, so as to be available for irrigation thereof, and that plaintiffs had complied with the lawful conditions and requirements imposed by said company on the use of said water, and, having so complied, or offered compliance, defendant refused or neglected to allow plaintiffs the use of water from said ditch, or diverted the same to other and later settlers, it would constitute an entirely different complaint, to which the foregoing opinion would not be applicable, for plaintiffs have presented no such case.
In our judgment the trial court was correct in holding that the allegations of the complaint were insufficient to enable plaintiffs to bring within the boundaries of their acquisition
Affirmed.