Southern Ute Indian Tribe v. King Consolidated Ditch Co.

In enacting the Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969, §§ 37-*124192-101 to -602, C.R.S. (2010) ("WRDAA"), the General Assembly sought to create a workable mechanism for adjudicating water rights in Colorado by relaxing the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure for a limited subset of water matters. The legislature, however, carefully cireumseribed the seope of the matters adjudicable under the WRDAA's relaxed resume-notice procedures to ensure due process for the state's water rights holders. By expanding the seope of the term "determination of a water right" to encompass the…