State, Board of Land Commissioners v. Lonesome Fox Corp.

ROSE, Justice.

This appeal comes to this court posing a question which asks whether the State Board of Control erred in abandoning water rights on State lands. The petition was filed by a junior downstream water user seeking abandonment of senior water rights in the Rock Creek drainage in southern Wyoming, and the State Board of Control declared abandoned all but 62 acres of the original and supplemental appropriations involved.

The contestee, Board of Land Commissioners — lessor of the irrigated land — filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the contestant, Lonesome Fox Corporation,…