Nacele Stewart Et Al. v. Hood Corporation

This is an appeal taken from summary judgment granted in favor of defendants. The litigation arose out of an attempt to perfect desert entries on the Indian Hill plateau above the Snake River in Owyhee County. The entries were made pursuant to the Desert Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. § 321 et seq. A plan was conceived to farm Indian Hill by pumping irrigation water up the steep side of the Snake River Canyon and applying it to the arid plateau land. Plaintiffs were sublessees of certain of the desert entry lands during the 1963 crop season. Their crops failed and at the end of 1963 plaintiffs left Indian Hill at the request of the sublessors. Plaintiffs filed this action seeking to recover damages for their crop failures. On February 6, 1963, defendants-respondents R. T. Michener and Wallace Reed, who were desert entrymen, leased a portion of their entries to defendants-respondents Ore-Ida Motors, Inc., G. A. Masterson and A. J. Jolley. On February 11, 1963, Jolley, in turn, subleased a portion of those lands to C. D. Stewart, P. R. Stewart and C. J. Stewart. In May 1963 Wallace Reed and R. T. Michener terminated the February 6, 1963 lease to Jolley. However, Reed and Michener agreed to continue to respect the Jolley-Stewart sublease.