Whenever the owners of sixty percent or more of the area of lands served by any one lateral ditch used for the delivery of water for irrigation from a common source organizes a corporation having for its object the taking over and owning of all of the interests of the incorporators in said lateral, said incorporators to receive shares of stock in said corporation for their holdings, the corporation as organized has power, under the eminent domain laws of the state of Colorado, to condemn the interest in said lateral belonging to the owners of the remaining forty percent or less of the lands so served by the lateral.
Source: L. 19: p. 505, § 1. C.L. § 1629. CSA: C. 90, § 12. CRS 53: § 147-3-7. C.R.S. 1963: § 148-3-7.
ANNOTATION
A lateral ditch is a branch ditch which has its headgate in the main ditch and not in a natural watercourse. New Multa Trina Ditch Co. v. Patch, 123 Colo. 444, 230 P.2d 597 (1951).
Where the headgate of the ditch in question was located on the bank of a creek, not in a ditch bank, and a water right had been adjudicated to the ditch and a priority number of appropriation assigned thereto, the ditch was not a lateral ditch as the term is employed in irrigation usage and in this section. New Multa Trina Ditch Co. v. Patch, 123 Colo. 444, 230 P.2d 597 (1951).