Young & Norton v. Hinderlider

OPINION OP THE COURT.

We think the decision of the District Court was justified and probably required by the statement of facts on which it was heard, but we find that statement very incomplete and unsatisfactory as the basis of a decision in such a cause. If it were a matter of private interest alone, a question simply between two rival applicants 'for the right to use the waters in question, we should content ourselves with affirming the decision of the District Court. But the question is much broader than that, and includes the public interest as well, by the terms of the statute under which the territorial engineer, the water commissioners and the courts have jurisdiction of the subject matter.

1 The view apparently adopted by the water commissioners in their decision that the power of the territorial engineer to reject an application, “if in his opinion the approval thereof would be contrary to the public in-' terest,” sec. 29, is limited to cases in which the project would be a menace to the public health or safety is, we think, not broad enough.

There is no such limitation expressed in terms in the statute iand we think not by implication. The declaration in the first section of the statute that the waters therein described are “public waters” and the fact that the entire statute is designed to secure the greatest possible benefit from them for the public, should be borne in mind.

It is, for instance, obviously for the public interest that investors should be protected against making worthless investments in New Mexico,- and especially that they should not be led to make them through official approval of unsound enterprises. If there is availablé, unappropriated water of the' La Plata river for only five or six thousand acres of land, it would be contrary to the public interest that a project for irrigating fourteen thousand acres with that water should receive an official approval which would, perhaps, enable the promoters of it to market their scheme. to sell stock reasonably sure to become worthless, and land which could not be irrigated, at the price of irrigated land. Such a proceeding would in the end result only in warning capital away from the Territory. The failure of any irrigation project carries with it not only disastrous consequences to its owners and to the farmers who are depending on it, but besides tends to destroy faith in irrigation enterprises generally.

It may be said that the territorial engineer could have . approved the Iiinderlider project for the number of acres which could be irrigated from it. He makes it clear, however, from his report, that the cost of the works for that project would be much greater than for works fit to irrigate the land which could really be irrigated from the available water there.

2 While that element is not conclusive on the question of public interest, we think it should be taken into account. It may be that, of the five or six thousand acres there which it is claimed can be irrigated at an expense of ten or twelve dollars per acre under the Young-Norton project, a thousand acres could be irrigated at five dollars per acre because of its being at a lower level or nearer the water than the other land. But that would not justify refusing to the owners of the other four or five thousand acres the privilege of irrigating their lands, under a plan which would increase the cost of irrigation to the owners of the thousand acres. And the same may be said of the Hinderlider project as compared with the Young-Norton project. The mere fact that irrigation under the former project would cost more per acre than under the latter is not conclusive that the former project should be rejected.

But the attempt to cover too much land may have gone so far that the cost of irrigation under that project would be so excessive that the owners of land under the project could not pay the water rates and farm their lands at a profit. The statute provides that the charges for irrigation shall be “reasonable” but what is reasonable in any case must depend largely on the cost of constructing and operating the irrigating works.

The agreed statement of facts on which the judgment of the District Court is based may be held to include by reference the findings of the territorial engineer and those of the board of water commissioners although it is not made clear that they are to be a part of the stipulated facts, as it should be if that was the intention of the parties. Even if they are to be considered we are still without proper material for a conclusion. The territorial engineer finds that the Young, Norton project is “better within the available water supply,” but that furnished no reason why he should not have approved the earlier project for the amount of land there is water for. He does not find that the cost of water under the Hinderlider project would be prohibitory or excessive but only’ that it would be considerable greater per acre than under the Young-Norton project. The price which the owners of land can afford to pay for irrigation must depend in part on the use to which it can be put.

For ordinary farm crops forty dollars per acre for water might be prohibitory, while for fruit or garden truck in certain localities it might not be excessive. But neither the territorial engineer nor the water commissioners have touched on that point in their reports. The territorial engineer apparently bases his approval of the latter project as against the former on the fact that Young and Norton and their associates are actual settlers on the land while Hinderlider is not a resident of the territory. We do not say this circumstance should have no weight in determining the question of the public interest, but we think it should not outweigh the other considerations to which we have referred.

On the other band, the water commissioners find that there is available unappropriated flood' water of the La Plata river but do not find whether there is enough for fourteen thousand or any other number of acres, nor whether the cost of the Hinderlider project would be such as necessarily to make the irrigation charges under it prohibitory or excessive.

We find in Armijo v. County Commissioners, 11 N. M. 294, a precedent for the course which .we think it advisable to pursue in this matter.

3 The cause is therefore remanded to the District Court to obtain facts through the water commissioners and territorial engineer, or by agreement of counsel or otherwise essential to a satisfactory decision of the cause. It is not meant to limit the District Court to the precise points we have named, but to leave the matter open for the introduction of any facts bearing on the question of public interest. And the judgment of the District Court is set aside in order that it may on further consideration render such decision as it shall deem proper.