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<br />United states vs <br />Fallbrook Public Utility <br />District <br /> <br />United States <br />District Court <br />Southern District <br />of California <br /> <br />No. 1247 <br /> <br />This suit is popularly known as the "Fallbrook Case." The United <br />States, in the early 1940's, bought the Rancho Santa Margarita, a Spanish <br />grant of 135,000 acres on the Coast above San Diego.' The Navy then con- <br />structed the Camp Pendleton Marine base, a Naval ammunition depot and a <br />Naval hospital on the Ranch. Santa Margarita River rises in the Coastal <br />Range in Riverside County, enters San Diego County, and traverses twenty- <br />one miles of Camp Pendleton before entering the Pacific Ocean. Negotiations <br />took place in 1949 for the cooperative construction of De Luz Dam on the <br />Santa Margarita River to conserve a water supply for the Marine Base and <br />Hospital, and for the Fallbrook Public Utility District between the dam site <br />and the Marine Base. An agreement had been approved by the Department of <br />Interior, by the District, and by the Navy officers up to, but not including <br />the Secretary of Navy. An Assistant Secretary of Navy asked the Department <br />of Justice certain legal questions. The next thing the local people knew <br />was the filing of this action. A good deal of the popular turmoil over this <br />case arises from an allegation in paragraph VII of the complaint: <br /> <br />"To meet the great demands arising from these military <br />installations for military, agricultural, and other needs, <br />the United States, as against the defendants herein named, <br />asserts that it has a paramount right to 35,000 acre-feet of <br />water annually from the Santa Margarita River." (Emphasis <br />added) <br /> <br />One of the conundrums in this case is what is meant by "paramount <br />right." Appended to the complaint is a copy of a stipulated judgment of the <br />San Diego Superior Court, 1940, wherein the rights of the Rancho Santa <br />Margarita are set up to be 66-2/3% of the natural flow of the Santa Margarita <br />River system at a certain gauging station. This point is important. The United <br />States claims it succeeds to all the rights of the Rancho. However, not content <br />to assert its right to water as the Rancho could assert it, namely, in terms <br />of a percentage, it makes two curious additional allegations. First it says <br />that the state trial court found that 30,289 acre-feet of water a year was <br />"useful, valuable, and necessary" for the Rancho, and then this amount is <br />stepped up by a further allegation to 35,000 acre-feet to which the United <br />States lays the claim of "paramount right." These allegations of paramount <br />right for ~ilitary purposes are expanded by detailed statements of the <br />functions of Camp Pendleton. <br /> <br />The complaint names 62 defendants and 25 John Does. It alleges that <br />the defendants have taken such quantities of water from the river above the <br />Rancho as to cause salt water intrusion from the Ocean; that the defendants <br />have claimed adversely to the United States and encroach on the insufficient <br />supply needed for national defense. The prayer is to quiet title; that the <br />court determine the rights of the United States to be paramount to all rights <br />of the defendants; and that the defendants be enjoined permanently from either <br />encroaching on 'the rights of the United States or threatening to encroach. <br />The complaint was filed January 25, 1951. Certain defendants made motions <br />to make more definite and certain, and to strike certain portions of the <br /> <br />-15- <br />