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Show SPECIAL STATUTORY ADJUDICATION PROCEDURES 493 in the State Engineer's office "shall declare, as to the water right adjudged to each party, whether riparian or by appropriation, the extent, the priority, amount, purpose, place of use, and, as to water used for irrigation, the specific tracts of land to which it shall be appurtenant, together with such other conditions as may be necessary to define the right and its priority." The determination of the State Engineer, as confirmed or modified by the court, shall be conclusive as to all prior rights and rights of all existing claimants lawfully embraced in the determination.302 In the determination of water rights it is the duty of all claimants interested therein to appear and submit proof of their claims. Any claimant who fails to so appear and submit such proof "shall be barred and estopped from subsequently asserting any rights theretofore acquired upon the stream or other body of water embraced in the proceedings, and shall be held to have forfeited all rights to the use of the water theretofore claimed by him."303 Any person interested in the determination of the rights to use water of a stream who did not receive notice and had no actual knowledge of such proceedings may, within 1 year after the entry of the State Engineer's determination, intervene in the proceedings upon such terms as may be equitable.304 Whenever rights to waters of any stream have been determined in different proceedings, all proofs or evidence of rights to water and the State Engineer's findings in relation thereto may be opened by the State Engineer to public inspection. Any person may then contest the proofs or evidence and findings in the manner provided for contesting the State Engineer's original determination, provided that contests may not be made between claimants who were parties to the same adjudication proceedings in the original hearings.305 Chapter 539 of the Oregon statutes, which includes this special procedure for determination and adjudication of Water rights in stream systems, is entitled "Determination of Water Rights Initiated Before February 24, 1909," although the body of the chapter does not expressly so limit its application. In a 1959 case, the Oregon Supreme Court said, "We note first a division in the Oregon Revised Statutes between the procedure set out in Ch. 539 for the determination of water rights initiated before the adoption of the water code on February 24, 1909, and the procedure incident to the granting, denying and cancellation of permits after that date."306 An informational pamphlet issued by the State Engineer states, among other 302Oreg. Rev. Stat. § 539.200 (Supp. 1955). 303/d. § 539.210. 304 Id. 305Id. § 539.220. 306 Warner Valley Stock Co. v. Lynch, 215 Oreg. 523, 548, 336 Pac. (2d) 884 (1959). The court, however, did not directly deal with the question of whether the application of chapter 539 is limited to the determination of water rights initiated before February 24,1909. The procedure regarding water permits is contained in chapter 537 of the statutes. |
