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Show 370 LOSS OF WATER RIGHTS IN WATERCOURSES of the author, there was associated with it, in the court's opinion, one or more of the long recognized elements of the prescriptive right, specifically: open, notorious, adverse, exclusive, knowledge, acquiescence, claim of right. In fact, the Wyoming Supreme Court stated that mere use of water, however long continued, does not give rise to a title by prescription, but that the adverse claimants are bound to show an invasion in a substantial manner of the rights of the true owner and the extent of that invasion during a continuous prescriptive period, and that the adverse use was made with the knowledge and acquiescence of the true owner.568 Interruption of adverse use.-(\) An interruption of the use of the water by the adverse party necessary to defeat the claim of a prescriptive right on his part must be deliberate, open, substantial, and with the intention of reestablishing the claim of the party whose right has been invaded. (2) It is said in some of the cases that any interruption of adverse use, however slight, prevents the acquisition of title by prescription.569 But it is also said that occasional suspensions or interruptions of use, such as placing of obstructions in the ditch which are immediately removed, do not constitute an interruption of an adverse use,570 so long as such obstructions are not "such as to frequency or persistence as to manifest a definite purpose on the part of the defendant to so interrupt the plaintiffs' otherwise open, peaceable, and continuous use of said ditch as to prevent the running of the prescriptive period."571 (3) An attempt to regain possession of a water right the use of which has been under the actual control of another must be successful and must lead to a change in its control before the prescriptive claim can be defeated; for the statute of limitations does not contemplate that slight interruptions will stop its running in favor of one who for all practical purposes maintains possession of the property.572 (4) After adverse possession begins, continuity of possession and use by the adverse party can be broken only by the rightful owner's interference with Progress Co. v. Salt Lake City, 53 Utah 556, 568, 173 Pac. 705 (1918); more than 30 years, Allen v. Swadley, 46 Colo. 544, 547-548, 554, 105 Pac. 1097 (1909); Pleasant Valley & Lake Canal Co. v. Maxwell, 93 Colo. 73, 74-75, 78, 23 Pac. (2d) 948 (1933); little interruption for more than 50 years, Wellsville East Field Irr. Co. v. Lindsay Land & Livestock Co., 104 Utah 448, 478-479, 137 Pac. (2d) 634 (1943). s6tCampbell v. Wyoming Dev. Co., 55 Wyo. 347, 414-415, 100 Pac. (2d) 124, 102 Pac. (2d) 745 (1940). 569In re Ahtanum Creek, 139 Wash. 84, 92-93, 245 Pac. 758 (1926);Bree v. Wheeler, 129 Cal. 145, 147, 61 Pac. 782 (1900); Center Creek Water & Irr. Co. v. Lindsay, 21 Utah 192, 200, 60 Pac. 559 (1900). sl0Big Rock Mutual Water Co. v. Valyermo Ranch Co., 78 Cal. App. 266, 272, 248 Pac. 264 (1926); Thomas v. Spencer, 69 Wash. 433, 436, 125 Pac. 361 (1912). S7iScott\. Henry, 196 Cal. 666, 671, 239 Pac. 314 (1925). 572Gardner\. Wright, 49 Oreg. 609, 631-632, 91 Pac. 286 (1907). |