Owners of Groundwater Rights Entitled to Notice of Court Decision

Abstract

A California appellate court ruled that the rights of a landowner to groundwater underlying his property was analogous to the rights of a riparian owner to a stream. Thus, the court said, the trial court, in adjudicating the competing claims to the groundwater, could not subordinate an unexercised right to a present appropriative use. Under state law, the adjudication of rights in streamwater involved notice to all parties and consideration of all claims. Because the trial court's judgment gave a water district absolute priority to 1103 acreft of water per annum no matter how many people later appeared to present a claim, the appellate court said that owners of present rights to future use of the groundwater were entitled to notice. The court reversed the judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings.