Oregon Revised Statutes

Or. Rev. Stat. § 540.631 (2026)

Cancellation of forfeited water right; notice

✓ current as of May 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section ORSoregonlegislature.gov JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

540.631 Cancellation of forfeited water right; notice. Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the Water Resources Commission upon the commission’s own determination or upon evidence submitted to the commission by any person that a perfected and developed water right has been forfeited as provided in ORS 540.610 (1), and would not be rebutted under ORS 540.610 (2), the commission shall initiate proceedings for the cancellation of such water right by causing written notice of such initiation of proceedings to be given by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the legal owner of the lands to which the water right is appurtenant and to the occupant of such lands. The notice to the legal owner shall be addressed to the legal owner at the owner’s last address of record in the office of the county assessor of the county in which the lands are located. The notice shall contain a complete description of the water right and of the lands to which the water right is appurtenant. The notice shall state that the legal owner or the occupant has a period of 60 days from the date of the mailing of the notice within which to protest the proposed cancellation of the water right. [1955 c.670 §2; 1985 c.673 §97; 1989 c.699 §2; 1991 c.249 §53]

540.640 [Repealed by 1955 c.671 §1]

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases, 1985–2003 · leading case: Rencken v. Young, 711 P.2d 954 (Or. 1985).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Rencken v. Young, 711 P.2d 954 (Or. 1985). · cites it 2× “*360 None of the Oregon cases which consider the “abandonment-forfeiture” question refers to ORS 540.631, which in part provides: “Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the Water Resources Director * * * that a perfected and developed water right has been abandoned as…”

Kerivan v. Water Resources Comm'n, 72 P.3d 659 (Or. Ct. App. 2003). · cites it 6× “490, 3 asserting that they had submitted a request for cancellation of a certified water right supported by affidavits in proper form and that the department had acted unlawfully by refusing to initiate the cancellation proceedings as required by ORS 540.631. Petitioners asked…”

Staats v. Newman, 988 P.2d 439 (Or. Ct. App. 1999). “ORS 540.631. The owner then may protest the proposed cancellation and request a contested case hearing, which must be conducted in accordance with the contested case provisions of the APA.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.