Litigation

A trusted advisor to the San Diego County Water Authority for more than two decades, we handle all Colorado River and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) matters, serving as special counsel on program, strategy and rate litigation issues. Our unmatched understanding of the complexities of this client and its business positioned our team to deliver a significant victory for the Water Authority in 2020 when a San Francisco Superior Court awarded $44.4 million in a final judgment for two cases covering 2011-2014 rates paid by San Diego County ratepayers. The case rectified improper charges—which had they continued, would have cost San Diego County residents more than $500 million. The judgment also awarded a 100,000 acre-feet per year increase in the Water Authority’s preferential right to MWD water.

Tenacious in our pursuit of your goals—inside and outside the courtroom. That’s why, when Serratoga Falls, LLC, needed to place an underground pipeline through a 500-home subdivision development and immediately encountered a complicated lawsuit, they called in our litigation team. They faced 17 claims seeking over $750,000 in damages, disgorgement of profits and injunctions preventing water use and property development. We handled all aspects of the case including filing a counterclaim to obtain court permission to underground an open ditch running through the property. After a seven-day bench trial, the court dismissed all claims, approved the proposed underground pipeline and awarded attorneys’ fees and costs. The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s decision and also awarded partial appellate attorneys’ fees, a complete victory for our client.

The 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) was the cornerstone of a Colorado River Basin states water supply solution, giving California the ability to implement major Colorado River water transfers and allowing the state to live within its 4.4 million acre-foot basic annual water apportionment. Given historical disputes between diverse parties and what was at stake, a decade of litigation followed. The San Diego County Water Authority relied on Brownstein’s natural resources team during the initial negotiation of QSA and it later led the defense of QSA in litigation, ultimately securing a momentous victory for California—validation of QSA and its 11 related agreements and successful defense of all outstanding legal challenges. For San Diego County, the stakes were particularly important: providing long-term water security for the region’s $245 billion economy and quality of life for its 3.3 million residents.