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Show THE RIPARIAN RIGHT 21 Time of Accrual of Riparian Right When land title passes from public to private ownership.-It is the generally recognized rule that title to the riparian right, in the jurisdictions in which the riparian doctrine of water rights is recognized, accrues when title to the riparian land passes from public-Federal or State-to private ownership.85 In the early gold mining days in California, before provision had been made for the acquisition of private title to the public lands in which the gold was found, the courts of that State took the view that an occupant of public land of the United States contiguous to a stream gained, by virtue of location thereon with intent to appropriate the land to his own use, rights equivalent to those of an owner of private riparian land as against persons who subsequently appropriated water from the same stream.86 This right accrued at the time of occupation, and the water right of the possessor was protected from the time he took possession. After Congress established procedure for the formal acquisition of land titles from the Government, however, the riparian right of the grantee of land from the United States was protected from a time which, bore some relation to the formal procedure for acquiring the title. This is the subject of the next ensuing subtopic. Protection of title by relation back.-After some vacillation,87 the California Supreme Court reached the conclusion that as to subsequent parties other than the United States, the inception of the land right is the date of settlement, and that riparian rights in lands acquired from the Government are protected, not only from the filing of entry in the land office, but from the time of bona fide settlement with the intention of subsequently acquiring a complete title by patent.88 Other courts rendered decisions to the same effect.89 continue to obtain funds for educational and other trust purposes, adding that "Washington has benefitted greatly ... by a policy of retention and development of these lands." The court said that "Const, art. 21, § 1 does not, by its terms, waive riparian water rights in state trust lands. Nor is it essential to so read it in order to avoid conflict with provisions of the Enabling Act or of other provisions of the constitution." 466 Pac. (2d) at 511-513. The court indicated that the two riparian parcels of public trust lands in dispute were obtained from the Federal Government in pursuance of the 1889 Enabling Act dedicating such lands to the support of agricultural colleges (25 Stat. 681) and for the support of common schools (25 Stat. 679). 466 Pac. (2d) at 509. "McKinley Bros. v. McCauley, 215 Cal. 229, 231, 9 Pac. (2d) 298 (1932); Sturr v. Beck, 133 U.S. 541, 551 (1890); Motl v. Boyd, 116 Tex. 82, 107-108, 286 S.W. 458 (1926). But see the immediately preceding discussion of a recent Washington court decision dealing with State lands. ^Crandall v. Woods, 8 Cal. 136, 140-144 (1857). See, in chapter 6, "Establishment of the Riparian Doctrine in the West-Early Development of the Riparian Doctrine in Specified Jurisdictions-California." "See Hutchins, W. A., "The California Law of Water Rights" 180-181 (1956). wPabst v. Finmand, 190 Cal. 124,131, 211 Pac. 11 (1922). See chapter 6, at note 233. "Nonvoodv. Eastern Oreg. Land Co., 112 Oreg. 106, 111, 227 Pac. 1111 (1924); Cooky. Evans, 45 S. Dak. 31, 37, 185 N.W. 262 (1921), 45 S. Dak. 43, 45, 186 N.W. 571 |