Show A Well a Natural Water Source M C Sullivan et al appellants vs The Northern Spy Mining company Judgment of the lower court was affirmed af-firmed opinion delivered by I Judge Smith and concurred in by Chief Jus I tice Merritt and Associate Justice King The main question in the case and in fact the only one to consider was Can the discoverer of a flow of percolating perco-lating waters on public lands by digging dig-ging wells and improving the same and constantly using the water for a beneficial purpose acquire a right to take water from such wells as against an owner of the land on which the well is located where the owner of the land acquired title by a location I made subsequent to the digging of the wells > The opinion held that this question must be answered in the affirmative I af-firmative and therefore the judgment I was affirmed In so deciding their i honors held in effect that a well was a I natural water supply I The original complaint set up that the plaintiffs were the owners of the j Pekin mining claim in the Tintic district I dis-trict At the time the location was made the ground was unoccupied public pub-lic land and there were certain wells upon it ten to fifteen feet deep which had been there for years and were used for watering stock The plaintiffs plain-tiffs contention is that the defendants defend-ants trespassed on their claim and took away large quantities of water The defendants alleged thit forman for-man years before the alleged trespass tres-pass the wells had been dug that the ground was solely valuable by reason rea-son of the wells and that at the time the wells were dug there was no ap pearnce of minerals on the land that the wells were used by the owners of the Northern Spy who derived their right thereto from their predecessors in interest The main point in contention con-tention was whether or not the wells were water courses |