Ide v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 federal appellate · 24 district · 49 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 112 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"One who by the expenditure of money and labor diverts appropriable water from a stream, and thus makes it available for fruitful purposes, is entitled to its exclusive control so long as he is able and willing to apply it to beneficial uses, and such right extends to what is commonly known as wastage from surface run-off and deep percolation, necessarily incident to practical irrigation. Considerations of both public policy and natural justice strongly support such a rule. Nor is it essential to his control that the appropriator maintain continuous actual possession of such water. So long as he does not abandon it or forfeit it by failure to use, he may assert his rights. It is not necessary that he confine it upon his own land or convey it in an artificial conduit. It is requisite, of course, that he be able to identify it; but, subject to that limitation, he may conduct it through natural channels and may even commingle it or suffer it to commingle with other waters. In short, the rights of an appropriator in these respects are not affected by the fact that the water has once been used."”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 102 Wash. 2d 109 - Jensen v. Department of Ecology · Harrell v. F. H. Vahlsing, Inc.

2. ““At an early stage of the investigations Congress became solicitous lest continued disposal of lands in that region under the land laws might render it difficult and costly to obtain necessary rights of way for canals and ditches when the work was undertaken. To avoid such embarrassment Congress at first withdrew great bodies of the lands from disposal under the land laws. * * * That action proved unsatisfactory, and, by the Act of August 30, 1890, Congress repealed the withdrawal, restored the lands to disposal under the land laws and gave the direction that in all patents there should be a reservation of rights of way, etc. Of course the direction must be interpreted in the light of circumstances which prompted it, and when this is done, the conclusion is unavoidable that the direction is intended to include canals and ditches constructed after patent issues quite as much as those constructed before. All courts in which the question has arisen have taken this view. Green v. Willhite, C.C., 160 F. 755 ; United States v. Van Horn, D.C., 197 F. 611 ; Green v. Willhite, 14 Idaho 238 , 93 P. 971 . * * * “A contention is made that the statute and the reservation in the patents are confined to ditches constructed while the state owned the land. But it is not claimed that the ■Supreme Court of the state has so ■decided, and as we read the statute and reservation they refute the contention. * * * We conclude that the plaintiff has a lawfully reserved right of way over the tracts of ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hillstrand v. State

3. “* * * But we think the contention [i. e., that the reservation in the patent there in issue directed to canals and ditches “constructed or to be constructed” was void to the extent that it exceeded the statutory language relating to canals and ditches “constructed”] ascribes to the direction a narrower scope than Congress intended it should have. The officers of the land department, as the patents show, regard it as comprehending all canals and ditches constructed under the direct authority of the United States, whether the construction precedes or follows the issue of the patent. * * * Of course the direction: must be interpreted in the light of the circumstances which prompted it,, and when this is done the conclusion is unavoidable that the direction is intended to include canals and ditches constructed after patent issues quite: as much as those constructed before. All courts in which the question has. arisen have taken this view. [Citations.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Myers v. United States