104 Wash. 610 | Wash. | 1919
The court found that respondents had bought land of appellant under a misapprehension as to the appurtenant water rights, the land being practically valueless without water for irrigation, and a misapprehension as to the amount of land subject to
The value of arid land is in the right or ability to irrigate it. We have not yet measured and fixed the extent of appropriation along the streams in the arid regions of the state, and therefore an abstract does not necessarily show the extent of a prior right, nor should neighborhood gossip or rumor estop a purchaser who buys land upon the assurance of the owner that he had never had any trouble about the water. This inducement was emphasized, it seems to us, by the statement of the attorney to the same effect, and the un
“The appellant contends, however, that, . . . the respondents are not entitled to recover, for the reason that their agent was on the ground and in a position to inspect the irrigation facilities and was urged by the appellant to do so. On that assumption he argues that, having had full opportunity to investigate the truth of the representations, he purchased at his own peril. But this court, in a line of cases extending from its earliest history down to the recent case of Eyers v. Burbank Co., 97 Wash. 220, 166 Pac. 656, has adhered to the rule that, where facts are peculiarly within the knowledge of the vendor and difficult of ascertainment by the vendee, the vendee who relies on the vendor’s word is entitled to rescind for misrepresentation as to material facts, although he may have inspected the land and made some investigation of the subject-matter of the representations.”
There is some contention that appellant had a prescriptive right to use the waters of the stream. We question whether the use of water theretofore appropriated by another, but not yet put to a beneficial use, would avail to create a prescriptive right.
But be that as it may, it would entail an expensive piece of litigation, for men in the deserts will fight for water, even to the last drop. Respondents set out to
Tbe judgment is affirmed.