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<br />30 <br /> <br />June, HIO~ <br /> <br />J.n'" <br /> <br />The defendants appealed the case, and on November 27, 1961, the Supreme <br />Court of Colorado reversed the judgment.ll Iii their review of the case, the <br />Supreme Court recognized apparent inequities in the original decision and <br />directed that further proceedings were needed to resolve several pertinent <br />points. However, they held that the doctrine of prior appropriation was appli- <br />cable, as did the district court. Their decision was guided chiefly by two le- <br />gal principles. One states that the diverter <br /> <br />" . . . is not entitled to command the whole or a substantial flow of the <br />stream merely to facilitate his taking the fraction of the whole flow to <br />which he is entitled. Schodde versus Twin Falls Land & Water Co., 224 <br />U.S. 107, 119, 32 S.C. 470, 56L. Ed. 686. This principle applied to di- <br />version of underflow or underground water means that priority of ap- <br />propriation does not give a right to an inefficient means of diversion <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />The second principle states that <br /> <br />" . . . a junior appropriator may not divert the water to which he is en- <br />titled by any method or means the result of which will be to diminish <br />or interfere with the right of a senior appropriator to full use of his ap- <br />p ropriation. " <br /> <br />The Supreme Court suggests that administrative agencies of government un- <br />der authority of legislative action might better apply the principles of the case <br />but this " . . . can not be a sufficient reason for failure of the judiciary to en- <br />force property rights as protected by existing law." <br />The Supreme Court instructed that the following must be done after such <br />additional evidence as the litigants may desire has been presented: <br /> <br />1. The rate of flow of senior and junior appropriators whose rights are <br />involved, together with the dates of priority of each appropriation, must <br />be determined. <br />2. The elevation of water in the aquifer at which each junior appropriator <br />must cease to divert water in order to meet the demands of a senior <br />appropriator must be fixed. <br />3. In determining the facts mentioned (under 2), the conditions surround- <br />ing the diversion by the senior appropriator must be examined to de- <br />termine whether or not he has created a means of diversion from the <br />aquifer that is reasonably adequate for the use to which he has histor- <br />ically put the water of his appropriation. If adequate means for reaching <br />a sufficient supply can be made available to the senior, whose present <br />facilities for diversion fail when water table is lowered by acts of the <br />junior appropriators, provision for such adequate means should be de- <br />creed at the expense of the junior appropriators, it being unreasonable <br />to require the senior to supply such means out of his own financial re- <br />sources. This reasonable provision of the law recognizes the nature of <br />underground aquifers is such that they sometimes have very great <br /> <br />11 Opinions of the Supreme Court of Colorado, Colorado Bar Assn., Denver, Colo., <br />Case 19483, November 27, 1961. <br />