Wyoming v. Colorado, 286 U.S. 494 (1932)

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Wyoming v. Colorado

No. 15, Original

Argued December 3, 1931
Decided May 31, 1932
286 U.S. 494

Syllabus

1. The decree in the earlier suit between Wyoming and Colorado, 259 U.S. 419, 496; 260 U.S. 1, defined and limited the quantity of water which Colorado and her appropriators may divert from the Laramie River and its tributaries and thus withhold from Wyoming and her appropriators. Pp. 506-508.

2. In a suit between two states to determine the relative rights of each and of their respective citizens to divert water from an interstate stream, private appropriators are represented by their respective states, and need not be made parties to be bound by the decree. Pp. 506-509.

3. The bill in the present case shows that the diversions in Colorado complained of as violating the former decree are not merely the acts of private corporations and individuals not parties to this suit, but that they are acts done by or under the authority of Colorado, and it shows with sufficient certainty to require answer that the decree has been violated by diversions in Colorado to the damage of Wyoming and her water users. Pp. 509-510.

Motion to dismiss bill overruled.

On motion to dismiss an original suit brought for the purpose of enforcing a decree in an earlier suit between the two states.