Bancroft Drainage District v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Co.

167 N.W. 731, 102 Neb. 455, 1918 Neb. LEXIS 86
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 1918
DocketNo. 19949
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 167 N.W. 731 (Bancroft Drainage District v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bancroft Drainage District v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Co., 167 N.W. 731, 102 Neb. 455, 1918 Neb. LEXIS 86 (Neb. 1918).

Opinion

Sedgwick, J.

Plaintiff brought this action in the district court for Cuming county to recover an assessment against the defendant. Prom a judgment in the plaintiff’s favor, the defendant has appealed.

The defendant concedes that the organization of the district was regular, and contests the validity of the assessment, upon two grounds: That the apportionment of benefits against the defendant .was invalid because [457]*457of the insufficiency of the notice of the action of the board in apportioning the benefits; and because the assessment was not certified to the county clerk and spread upon the tax list of that county. . The defendant also relies upon a judgment of the federal court of appeals as a bar to this action.

1. The assessment against the defendant amounted to more than $2,000, and the plaintiff began- an aption in the district court of the state, and upon application of the defendant the 'cause was removed to the federal court. Upon trial in that court, before the Honorable W. H. Munger, a judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, and upon writ' of error to the United States circuit court of appeals, the judgment was reversed on the ground that the notice of the meeting of the hoard for the apportionment of benefits was insufficient under our statute; two judges of that court agreeing to the reversal, and one judge dissenting. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co. v. Bancroft Drainage District. 219 Fed. 103. This illustrates the difficulty and importance of the construction of our various statutes upon the question of service by publication of notice; four eminent federal judges, in whom we have great confidence, have passed upon the question, two holding* that the notice in question was insufficient, and two considering the notice sufficient.

After the circuit court of appeals had reversed the decision of the lower court and remanded the cause for further proceedings therein, the trial court, upon plaintiff’s motion, dismissed the case without prejudice .to a future action.- The plaintiff then began this action ip the district court for Cuming county asking judgment for . $1,999 and interest. The defendant pleaded the judgment of the circuit court of appeals as a bar to this action, and now contends that the judgment of that court- was a final disposition of the plaintiff’s claim.

[458]*458Our statute provides: “An action may be dismissed without prejudice to a future action: First. By the plaintiff, before the final submission of the case to the jury, or to the court where the trial is by the court.” Rev. St. 1913, sec. 7654. This right exists after a judgment upon the merits has been reversed by an appellate court, and the cause remanded for further proceedings. Illinois C. R. Co. v. Bentz, 108 Tenn. 670, 58 L. R. A. 690; Young v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co., 75 S. Car. 326, 7 L. R. A. n. s. 501, and note; Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. Larwill, 83 Ohio St. 108, 34 L. R. A. n. s. 1195, and note. After such dismissal in the federal courts; the plaintiff may prosecute an action in the state court for less than $2,000, and so prevent another removal to the federal court. McIver v. Florida C. & P. R. Co., 110 Ga. 223, 65 L. R. A. 437.

2. Section 1877, Rev. St. 1913, provides: “A notice shall be inserted for at least one week in a newspaper published at .the county seat, stating the time when, and the place where, the directors shall meet for the purpose of hearing all parties interested in the apportionment of benefit by reason of the improvement.” A notice was published in a weekly newspaper on the 3d day of September, 1909, that the board would act in the matter on the 11th day of September. The 10th of September was also a regular publication day -of the paper, but no publication of the notice was inserted on that day. The contention is that, under this- statute, the notice must be published for and during the week immediately preceding, the action of the board, and as more than a week intervened between the publication of the notice and the action of the board, and in the meantime the paper was published on the 10th day of September, the statute was not. oompliéd with. It is universally held that, when jurisdiction of a party -is to be obtained by publication of a notice, the statute allowing such service must be strictly complied with. [459]*459In State v. Hanson, 89 Neb. 724, 737, it is said: “It is apparent that the phrases, ‘shall publish a notice once each week for three weeks,’ and ‘a notice shall be given for three weeks by publication,’ have different meanings. In the first ‘for three weeks’ limits the number of publications, and in the other phrase ‘for three weeks’ fixes the period of time during which the publication must be made.” The plaintiff contends that this language is applicable to the case at bar. In that case, the requirement was that the notice shall be published “once each week for three weeks.” In the case at bar, the requirement is that the notice “shall be inserted for at least one week.” If this difference in the language distinguishes the cases, and we hold that in this case the statute “expresses tlr duration of the notice,” it becomes necessary to consider whether this statute has been strictly complied with. Publication “for one week” means during one week. Lawson v. Gibson, 18 Neb. 137. In Leavitt v. Bell, 55 Neb. 57, it is said that it is held in Lawson v. Gibson, supra, “that the notice must be published during the thirty days immediately preceding the date of sale.”

If we consider that the week “for” which it was published was the day on which it was published and the next succeeding six days, then the week began at midnight after September 2, and ended at midnight aiuer September 9, and, as the meeting of the board was on the 11th, one whole day intervened. Our statute provides: “The time within which an act is to be done as herein provided, shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last.” Rev. St. 1913, sec. 8570. If we exclude the first day of publication and include the seventh day thereafter,. the week for which it was published ended at midnight after the 10th, and the morning of the 11th was the earliest time that the meeting could be held. ,

If we say that the week “for” which the publication was made began at the precise minute when the paper [460]*460was published and ended the- same minute of the seventh day thereafter, we have this condition to contend with. The facts upon which the trial court determined the action were stipulated, by the parties. Prom this stipulation, it appears that the paper containing this notice was published- before noon of the 3d day of September, and'that the published notice specified that the meeting of the board to determine the apportionment of .benefits would be'held at 8 o ’clock in the forenoon of the 11th day of September. Thus, the notice was for more than seven days and for less than eight days. If the meeting had been held at the same hour of the 10th day of September, the notice would not have been published for a week of seven entire days before the meeting. So that, although the. notice was published for one. week, the board could not hold their meeting under such notice at. any time other than the- afternoon of the 10th day of September.- Perhaps the argument would carry us still farther.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Prucka v. Eastern Sarpy Drainage District
59 N.W.2d 761 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1953)
In re Buckeye Pipe Line Co.
89 A.2d 289 (New Jersey Special Statutory Court, 1952)
Fleming v. Perkins
1949 OK 252 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1949)
Chilen v. Commercial Casualty Insurance
283 N.W. 366 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1939)
Scottsbluff Drainage District v. Scotts Bluff County
202 N.W. 455 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1925)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 N.W. 731, 102 Neb. 455, 1918 Neb. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bancroft-drainage-district-v-chicago-st-paul-minneapolis-omaha-neb-1918.