(San Diego) In the Supreme Court of the State of California. The City of San Diego, a Municipal Corporation, Plaintiff, Appellant and Respondent vs. Cuyamaca Water Company, et al., Defendants, and The City of El Cajon, et al., Intervenors. On Appeal from San Diego County. Honorable M. W. Conklng, Judge. Opening Brief of Defendants and Intervenors on Their Appeal. Volumes I and II

n.p., 1928. First Edition. Hardcover. Vol. I: pp. xi, 446; Vol. II: vi, 447-785. Folding document in Volume II. With Topic Index, Table of Cases, Index to Quotations, and Index to Spanish Laws quoted. Although the City of San Diego had long contracted with Cuyamaca and its predecessors for water, the City had decided to purchase the Water Company. When the deal stalled, the city decided to claim pueblo right to all the waters of the San Diego River - and the Court ruled in its favor (and San Diego eventually purchased the land, dams, flumes, etc., of the Company). 'As the pueblo rights of the City accrued prior to the passage of the Congressional acts granting rights-of-way over the public domain, rights-of-way acquired under such legislation were held by the California Supreme Court to be subordinate to the already vested rights of the City derived from its succession to the Mexican pueblo' - Wells A. Hutchins (Water Rights in the Nineteen Western States, Vol. I, p. 271; see also Chapter 11, 'The Pueblo Water Right' in Vol. II). In this Brief, the defendants prepared a very detailed presentation and analysis of water rights during colonial Spanish and Mexican period. Writing in the tome familiar to Southern California boosters, the Defendants' lawyers conclude with this plea: 'These defendants and intervenors and their predecessors in interest have been in the actual enjoyment and use of these waters of the the San Diego River during the entire existence of the United States. The City of San Diego stood by for one hundred and fifty years and never disputed our right to the continued use of these water. On the other hand, they encouraged the defendants and intervenors in the spending of vast sums of money to put those waters to beneficial use. Farms have been made, orchards have been planted, homes have been constructed, communities have grown up, and thriving cities have been built, relying upon the right to continuyed use of these waters. These cities and communities have the right to grow, To limit their future supply to the maximum quantity used by them prior to the commencement of this action would be a ruin to those Cities and the value of the property therein. Cities like everything else in this world must go forward or backward.' The Intervenors includes The City of El Cajon and La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley Irrigation District. One of the co-defendants on this case was Ed Fletcher who had once owned the San Diego Flume Company, changing the name to Cuyamaca Water Company in 1910. Volume II is inscribed: 'To My Friend Arthuir M. Ellis With compliments of the writer Charles C. Crouch.' Crouch was one of the defendants lawyers. First edition (first printing). A very good set in cream and red cloth covers with gilt lettering on spine. No dust jacketr as issued. Scarce.