CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - INTERSTATE COMPACTS -- VALIDITY - REVIEW BY UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Authors

Gerald M. Stevens, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

The states of Colorado and New Mexico agreed by compact on a division of the water of the La Plata river, which rises in the first state and flows into the second. The interstate compact, as administered, required that during periods of low water the whole flow of the river was to be used alternately by the states. For ten days Colorado users were to have all the water, then for a like time to allow the water to flow undiminished to New Mexico. In Colorado a ditch company engaged in distributing water for irrigation had acquired by appropriation a right to a certain quantity of water from the stream. The ditch company sued in the Colorado state courts to enjoin interference with its right to the water. There plaintiff succeeded; the supreme court held the compact ineffective to impair private vested rights. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, the appeal should be dismissed; but the decision was reviewed on certiorari and reversed. The Court stated that the La Plata River compact concluded plaintiff's rights. Hinderlider v. La Plata R. & Cherry Creek Ditch Co., 304 U.S. 92, 58 S. Ct. 803 (1938), rehearing denied 6 U. S. L. WEEK 145 (Oct. 11, 1938).

Recommended Citation

Gerald M. Stevens, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - INTERSTATE COMPACTS -- VALIDITY - REVIEW BY UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, 37 Mich. L. Rev. 129 (1938).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol37/iss1/12