R. A. Smiley and Mary H. Smiley v. State of South Dakota

R. A. Smiley and Mary H. Smiley, his wife, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota against the state of South Dakota, Water Rights Commission of the State of South Dakota, and Belle Fourche Irrigation District, a corporation, seeking to enjoin defendants from depriving plaintiffs of their vested riparian rights without due process of law and just compensation.

Plaintiffs alleged that a judgment of the South Dakota trial court limiting their vested riparian rights under the revised South Dakota water law, S.D.C.L. § 46-1-9, deprived them of their…