GILROY
– A promise and a handshake.
That’s what members of a seventh-generation Gilroy family say
was supposed to ensure they would be able to continue using a
pipeline that has supplied water to the ranch for decades.
GILROY – A promise and a handshake.
That’s what members of a seventh-generation Gilroy family say was supposed to ensure they would be able to continue using a pipeline that has supplied water to the ranch for decades.
But the man who reportedly made that promise is now dead, the water lines have been cut, and the faucets at the Thomas Ranch are running dry.
Meanwhile, tony new Eagle Ridge homes sprout up around the historic Miller Avenue ranch owned by the Thomas family.
And as of Wednesday, the six-year conflict between the family and Eagle Ridge developer Shappell Industries has landed in a courtroom for a judge to decide.
The Thomases – seventh-generation Gilroyans and namesakes of Thomas Road – filed a civil lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court Wednesday seeking to restore use of the pipeline that brings water from an off-site spring through Eagle Ridge-owned land to their five-acre ranch.
“I remember back in the 1990s (Shappell) said they wanted to be our friends, not our enemies,” said Chris Thomas, a 19-year-old San Jose City College student who lives at the ranch along with his father. “It doesn’t look like they’re being too friendly right now.”
Shappell’s attorneys could not be reached for comment before press time Thursday. But in legal briefs, attorneys for the Milpitas-based company say the pipeline will adversely affect their ability to carry out city-approved development plans. They also note that they have arranged for the Thomases to hook up to city water on as little as a day’s notice.
“What the plaintiff complains of is not the inability to obtain water, but the requirement to pay for that water,” wrote Shappell attorney Steven Bernard. “The fact the plaintiff might have to pay for something they previously and surreptitiously took for free is not a ground for granting a temporary restraining order.”
The lawsuit comes roughly a week after Shappell severed the Thomas’ pipeline in several places along its roughly quarter-mile course. Water that used to supply the family’s taps, fruit trees and fish pond now flows down a gully high in the canyon above their homes.
Shappell has permission from the city to build 13 homes in the mouth of the canyon behind the Thomas’ ranch but says the pipeline will impact their ability to do the grading work necessary to construct five of them. Shappell wants the family to tap into a city water pipeline that the company was required to run to their property.
“The approved development plan cannot be implemented if the pipeline is in existence,” Shappell attorneys said in legal documents.
However, the Thomases don’t think they should have to give up a clean, good-tasting and inexpensive water supply they say their ancestors have tapped – without outside objection for decades – since Gilroy was an agricultural town of just a few thousand people and Eagle Ridge was just fields.
They use the spring water for everything on the five-acre ranch, which has three homes including one that reportedly dates back as far as the days of Reconstruction. Using city water to water the ranch’s 100-plus fruit trees or keep their large fish pond full would cost a pretty penny, they note, as would purchasing the same quality drinking water from the store.
But the matter is about more than the expense of paying for city water, says Thomas’ attorney, Perry Woodward.
“It’s about a lot of tradition and history out here,” he said.
The conflict between the family and Shappell wasn’t supposed to happen in the first place, according to Thomas.
Thomas said his grandparents Jack and Arline – the former owners of Gilroy Stationery – were not opposed to the Eagle Ridge development as long as their water and property rights were respected. And he said a former Eagle Ridge official promised them years ago that the family would always be able to use the spring.
However, that man is now deceased, and Shappell has repeatedly requested that the family shift to city water in recent years
The issue came to a head June 3, when Thomas said he came home to take a shower and there was no water. He went outside to investigate and found a notice from the company stating “Please be advised that the water line running across Eagle Ridge property has been removed on this date. Eagle Ridge Development Company.”
The Thomases suspect Shappell’s actions are sour grapes over the family’s refusal to sell the company a chunk of the ranch for a road leading into the new development.
According to the family, Shappell wanted to buy roughly 10,000 square feet of property on the north edge of the ranch for the access road. But the tract had sentimental value – it was where Chris Thomas’ grandparents had buried their dogs and the family declined to sell.
Woodward notes that Eagle Ridge had offered to reroute the spring water supply if the Thomases would have sold the property. But in the wake of their refusal, repeated attempts to negotiate have been unsuccessful.
“This is payback,” he said.
In the courtroom, the argument likely will center around state laws concerning water rights that allow a party to lay claim to a water supply if they have used it for more than five years with the supply owner’s awareness and inaction.
In briefs, Shappell attorneys argue that the company did not know the Thomases were using the pipeline until 1998, and that a previous licensing agreement for use of the spring water that dates from the 1920s says the family would not otherwise lay claim to the water. Eagle Ridge representatives sent the Thomases a letter formally canceling the agreement in February 1997 in order to clear title.
Woodward says that letter and others are evidence the company knew about the pipeline before 1998. He says the licensing agreement died in the 1940s, but even if it was valid it has been more than five years since the company’s action would have expired it.
Superior Court Judge William J. Elfving has issued orders allowing for the temporary restoration of the pipeline until another hearing next month, when he will decide whether to grant a longer preliminary injunction until the merits of the case can be heard.
The lawsuit seeks to permanently restore the Thomas’ right to use the water, as well as at least $50,000 in damages to compensate for alleged drops in property value. A deal to sell one of the ranch’s three houses is currently in escrow.
While the home is for sale, Chris Thomas said he will not abandon the ranch itself if he’s offered “$100 million dollars.”
“I just want to keep it in the family and keep passing it on from generation to generation,” he said.
