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<br />001081 <br /> <br />Messrs. MOYNIHAN, HUGHES", !mOus. for plaintiffs in error. <br /> <br />Messrs. McMULLIN, STEJl.NBDRG & HELl,!AN, for defendant in error. <br /> <br />En Bane. <br /> <br />Mr. JUSTICE YOUNG delivered the opinion of the court. <br /> <br />THE plaintiffs in error were respondents below and will be herein referred <br />to as respondents, or separately as Dalpez and the water company. The defendant <br />in error, J. H. Nix, was the petitioner and will be herein so designated, or <br />as Nix. <br /> <br />This action was brcught by the petitioner to secure an adjudication of his <br />right to the use of water for irrigation which he alleged was developed from <br />seepage and springs on lands to which reference will herein be made as the <br />Dunham lands. The proceeding is brought under chapter 112 of the Session Laws <br />of Colorado, 1905, being section 1766, C. L. 1921. After the hearing the trial <br />court entered a decree granting petitioner priority No.1 for 38/100 of a cubic <br />foot of water per second from seepage and springs on the Dunham lands as of date <br />April I, 1909. <br /> <br />The facts necessary to an understanding of the controversy before us are <br />substantially as follov.s, Uright's Draw is a naturul stream running in a general <br />northwesterly direction, more northerly than westerly. A public higlw.ay approaches <br />the draw from the eust crossing it over a bridge approximately at right angles. <br />The Dunham land lies eust of the draw and south of the roud. The Gurley ditch <br />runs along the easterly bank of the draw and parallel to it through the Dunham <br />land and across the road. The Cless ditch belonging to petitioner is about 150 <br />feet long and runs due east and west, parallel to and about 50 feet south of the <br />road. Its fall is to the >vest and it discharges into the Gurley ditch. From <br />the easterly end of the Cless ditch there are WiO lines of underground drainage <br />tiles or boxes. One extends easterly 1573 feet as an extension of the Cless <br />ditch and the other runs southeasterly 1385 feet along and a short distanoe <br />from the easterly side of the draw. <br /> <br />Respondent Dalpez awns the Moreland ditch, which has its headgate on the <br />east bank of the draw north of the road and ubout 150 feet below the point <br />where the Cless ditch flows into the Gurley ditch. The Gurley ditch belongs <br />to the water company, which has carried through it the water from the Cless <br />ditch to a point further dawn, where Nix takes it out into his own ditch to <br />irrigate his land. This is the only connection the water company has with this <br />case. <br /> <br />'. <br /> <br />, The evidence is undisputed that water fonnerly seeped into the road: that <br />the grade of the road is downward to the west: that the land south of the road <br />slopes to the north and the land north of it falls slightly to the south. It <br />thus appears that the road is builtin a slight depression sloping westerly, the <br />water from which drains into Wright's draw. Before the tile paralleling the <br />road was installed by the county to interoept it, the water had drained into the <br />road to such an extent as to form a bog at the east approach to the bridge <br />aoross the draw, which bog was about 100 feet above the headgate of the More- <br />land ditch belonging to Dalpez. <br /> <br />-2.. <br />