As between appropriators, the one first in time is the first in right.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1414
WATER RIGHTS
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra (1949)
Most recently applied in 900 F. Supp. 1304 - Westlands Water District v. Patterson (August 1995)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.