Geringer v. Runyan

Summary

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Joe and Tammy Geringer’s petitions seeking abandonment of water rights held by the respondents. The court held that the Geringers lacked standing because they did not show that abandonment would benefit their existing water rights or that the respondents’ water use injured those rights. The inability to operate their pivot irrigation system at the same time as the respondents’ wells was not an injury to a legally protected water right.

Holdings

1. A petitioner seeking abandonment of another's water right must show that the petitioner's own water right would be affected in a legally cognizable and discernible manner by the abandonment or reactivation. The Geringers failed to make that showing because they presented no evidence that the amount of water available in the underlying aquifer was limited.
2. The Supreme Court disagreed with the Board's factual finding that the Geringers were taking water in excess of their additional supply rights, because the Board made no finding and received no evidence concerning the amount of water necessary for beneficial irrigation. That error did not require reversal because the Board's independent legal conclusion that the Geringers lacked standing was correct.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Wyoming State Board of Control erred in finding that the Geringers lacked standing under the third element of Wyo. Stat. § 41-3-401(b), because they failed to show that they would benefit from abandonment or be injured by reactivation of the appellees' water rights.
2. Whether the Geringers' inability to operate their pivot irrigation system at the same time as the appellees constituted an injury to their additional supply water rights sufficient to establish standing.

Disposition

affirmed