Restrictions, pref erences. GENERAL PROVISIONS. § 1. No inhabitant of this territory shall have the right to construct any building to the impediment of the irrigation of lands or fields, such as mills or any other property that may obstruct the course of the water; as the irrigation of the fields C. L. 1865, chap. 1 should be preferable to all others. § 2: July 20, 1851. Tr. Foot paths prohi bited. Id. § 3. Animals, how controlled. Id. § 6. Payment, unnecessary for community benefit. Id. § 7. Disturbance of, prohibited. Id. § 8. Public ditches defined. $2. All bypaths or footpaths are prohibited across the fields under a penalty of fine or imprisonment. $ 3. It being impracticable or absolutely impossible for the fields in the territory to be fenced in, all animals shall be kept under a shepherd, so that no injury may result to the fields; and in case any damage should result, they shall be paid by the persons causing it. $ 4. In case a community of people desire to construct a ditch or acequia in any part of the territory, and the constructors are the owners of all the land upon which said ditch or acequia is constructed, in such case no one shall be bound to pay for said land, as all the persons interested in the construction of said ditch or acequia are to be benefited by it. $5. The course of ditches or acequias already established shall not be disturbed. $ 6. All rivers and streams of water in this territory, formerly known as public ditches or acequias, are hereby esC. L. 1865. chap. 1, tablished and declared to be public ditches or acequias. § 9: Jan 7, 1852, Tr. of water use towns. 20. for $ 7. That the inhabitants of all unincorporated towns or villages in which the respective population thereof shall exceed three thousand persons, the Territory of New Mexico and all other owners of public buildings in any such town or Prior right to the village shall have a prior right to the use of so much of the water of rivers, streams and other running water flowing through or near any such town or village as shall be neces sary for domestic and sanitary purposes and protection of property against damages by fire, and for the purposes of storing or supplying any such water for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, it shall be lawful to erect, maintain and L. 89, C. 70.§ 1: Feb. operate in or near any such river, stream or running water suitable dams, reservoirs and appurtenances. Community ditch es considered corporations. 28. § 8. All community ditches or acequias, now constructed or hereafter to be constructed in this territory, shall for the C. 1. L. 95. § 1: Feb. purposes of this act be considered as corporations or bodies corporate, with power to sue or to be sued as such. Officers, election and duties. 9. The officers of such community ditches or acequias shall consist of three commissioners and one mayordomo, or superintendent, each of whom shall be the owner of an interest in said ditch or the water therein; said officers shall be elected annually on the first Monday of December, and shall assume the duties of their office not later than the first Monday of the following January. On or before the first Monday of January, as aforesaid, said commissioners shall organize, by election of one of their number as chairman, another as secretary and another as treasurer. The treasurer shall be required to give a bond to the territory in a sum to be fixed by the commissioners. The mayordomo shall also be required to give a bond to the territory in a sum to be fixed by said commissioners. The condition of said bonds to be for the accounting of all moneys coming into their hands by virtue of their offices and for the faithful performance of their respective duties. In the event of a vacancy in the office of mayordomo, the commissioners shall have power to appoint a mayordomo or superintendent, to hold office until his successor is elected and qualified, as hereinbefore provided 28. C. 1. L. 95. § 2: Feb. Qualification of § 10. The election for acequia or community ditch officers Id. § 3. Duties of officers. $ 11. The commissioners shall assess fatigue work or tasks of all parties owning water rights in said community ditches or acequias, and shall have general charge and control of all affairs pertaining to the same, together with the power to receive money in lieu of said fatigue or task work at a price to be fixed by them. The mayordomo or superintendent shall, under the direction of said commissioners, be the executive officer of said ditch and have the superintendence of all work thereon and the distribution of the waters thereof, with the collection of fines, if any, and of amounts to be paid in lieu of fatigue or task work, and shall perform such other duties in connection with said ditch as may be prescribed by the rules and regulations of the same or as may be directed by the com- by C. 44, L. 97. missioners. $12. No person who has, after due notice, failed or refused to do his work, or pay the amount assessed against him in lieu of said work upon said acequia or ditch, shall be allowed to take or use any water from the same or any contra acequia or lateral thereof, whilst default in such payment or faiure to do such work continues. Id. § 4, as amended Failure to work, penalty. C. i, L. 95, § 5. Interference with § 13. Any person, not the owner or duly authorized repre- acequias, penalty. sentative of the owner, of the water right in said ditch, or any such owner or representative who is in default in work or payment, who shall, without permission of the commissioners, cut, break, stop up or interfere with said acequia or any contra or lateral acequia thereof, or take or use water from the same without such permission, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon complaint made by the mayordomo or superintendent or any commissioner of such acequia, before the nearest justice of the peace, a warrant shall issue for his arrest, as in the case of any other offense against the territory; and upon conviction for such misdemeanor the defendant shall be fined in the sum of not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars, at the discretion of the court or jury trying the cause, and in default of the payment of said fine, 28. C. 1. L.95. § 7: Feb. shall be confined in the county jail for a period of not less than five nor more than thirty days. Act not to apply to private ditches. Id. § 8. Fines, how applied. C. L. 1865, C. 1: Jan. 7. 1852: § 19, Tr. Appeals. Id. § 20. Growing plants, ownership of. C. L. 1865, chap. 1. $24: January 7, 1852. Tr. Damages, penalty for. Id. § 36. Damages, how as sessed. Id. § 37. Fines, how applied. Id. § 38. Acequias, ownership of. $ 14. The provisions of this act shall apply only to such ditches as have been heretofore and are now known and regarded as community ditches, under the laws of this territory; and under the provisions of this act, shall be construed to mean such ditches as are not private, and such as are not incorporated under the laws of this territory or of some other state or territory, and are held and owned by more than two owners as tenants in common, or joint tenants. 15. All fines and forfeitures recovered for the use and benefit of any public ditch or acequia, shall be applied by the overseer to the improvements, excavation and bridges for the same, wherever it may be crossed by any public road where bridges may be necessary. Territory vs. Tafoya, vol. 2. page 191. § 16. In all cases of conviction under this act, an appeal may be granted to the district court, which appeal shall be taken and conducted as all other appeals from the decisions of justices of the peace. Territory vs. Baca, vol. 2. page 183. $ 17. All plants of any description growing on the banks of said ditches, or acequias, shall belong to the owners of the land through which said ditches or acequias run. § 18. If any person or persons intentionally make lagoons of water, whether on their own or on other land, after the gathering of the crops, from which lagoons damage results to houses, common or private grounds, or public roads, the person so offending shall on conviction be fined by any justice of the peace of the county, in any sum not less than five nor more than ten dollars. § 19. Any person convicted of having committed injuries mentioned in the last foregoing section shall pay to the party injured the damages, after having been assessed by three persons of known integrity, appointed for that purpose by the justice in whose jurisdiction the complaint is made. $ 20. All fines arising from the provisions of this act shall be applied to the repairs herein mentioned, and in case of not being so expended they shall go into the treasury of the county wherein they were collected. § 21. All acequias, public or private, when completed. shall be the property of the persons who may have completed such acequias or ditches, and no person or persons who may desire to use the waters of such acequias or ditches shall be allowed so to do without the consent of a majority of the owners of such acequias or ditches, and upon payment of a share proportionate to the primary cost of such acequia or ditch to the amount of the land proposed to be irrigated, or the quantity of water proposed to be used: Provided, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to any acequias or ditches, public or private, that may pass from the limits L. 1882, chap. 30. § of any one county to within the lines of any other county. Proviso. 1: Feb. 24. § 22. Where any acequia or ditch, public or private, pass from within the limits of any one county, to within the lines : |