Valmont Plantations v. State

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE ROBERT W. HAMILTON

delivered opinion of the Court.

This is a suit between appropriators and riparians. It is a class action to determine whether, in the absence of specific grants of irrigation waters, Spanish and Mexican grants along the Rio Grande River have appurtenant riparian irrigation rights.

The State and numerous water districts assert rights of the appropriators, and the owners of lands out of the original grants assert rights similar to those commonly called riparian rights.

The trial court held that although it was of the opinion that the grants did not carry with…