Kobobel v. State Dept. of Natural Resources

Summary

The court affirmed dismissal of the well owners’ inverse-condemnation claims. It held that the claims were water matters within the water court’s exclusive jurisdiction because determining whether the State’s curtailment orders infringed the owners’ right to use water required resolving the scope of their water rights. On the merits, the court held that curtailing out-of-priority pumping without an augmentation or substitute water supply plan was not a taking because the owners never possessed an unrestricted right to pump tributary groundwater. Justice Eid dissented from the jurisdictional ruling, concluding that the regulatory-takings claim implicated ownership and belonged in district court.