Kansas v. Colorado, 533 U.S. 1, 24 (2001)

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24

KANSAS v. COLORADO

Opinion of O'Connor, J.

did so partially at the behest of New Mexico, the breaching State. See id., at 129-132. How, then, can one say that, at the time the Compact was negotiated and approved, its signatories could fairly be said to have intended, or at least could reasonably be said to have expected or assumed, that Kansas might recover prejudgment interest on damages caused by Colorado's breach? The necessary predicate to such a recovery was neither recognized nor even contemplated by this Court or, apparently, by the state parties to original actions of this sort, until some 40 years thence.

In light of this history, it seems inescapable that any participant in the drafting and negotiation of the Compact would, if asked at the time, have reacted with marked surprise to the notion that the Compact rendered its signatories liable for an award of prejudgment interest such as that sanctioned by the Court today. As both the Compact itself and the parties' post-Compact course of dealing make clear, the "fair intendment" of the Compact very probably was simply for the in-kind recovery of water as a remedy for its breach. The Compact says nothing about the availability of prejudgment interest on money damages as part of any remedy or, for that matter, about the availability of money damages as a remedy in the first instance. It contemplates the delivery of water from Colorado to Kansas, pure and simple. See Arkansas River Compact, reprinted in App. to Brief for Kansas A-1. When Kansas filed its complaint in this matter, "it sought only a decree commanding Colorado 'to deliver the waters of the Arkansas River in accordance with the provisions of the Arkansas River Compact.' " Third Report § XI, at 98. Cf. Colorado v. Kansas, 320 U. S. 383, 391 (1943) (discussing Kansas' prayer for relief in the form of "an apportionment in second feet or acre feet"). Not until our decision in Texas v. New Mexico, supra, did Kansas amend its complaint to include a claim for monetary damages. See Third Report § XI, at 98. Neither Kansas nor Colorado appears ever to have anticipated or assumed, much

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