Department of Ecology v. Acquavella

This is a water rights case. But the resolution turns on the application of the doctrine of res judicata. In the water rights adjudication here, the trial court confirmed the denial of water rights claims based on the failure of the claimant’s predecessor to assert the water rights in a 1921 water adjudication. We agree with the referee and the trial judge that the water rights claimed here appear nowhere in the 1921 decree. And the effect of this omission is to preclude the claimant from asserting these rights in this later adjudication. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court,…