Board of Commissioners v. Trotter

49 N.E. 976, 19 Ind. App. 626, 1898 Ind. App. LEXIS 68
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 29, 1898
DocketNo. 2,636
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 49 N.E. 976 (Board of Commissioners v. Trotter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Commissioners v. Trotter, 49 N.E. 976, 19 Ind. App. 626, 1898 Ind. App. LEXIS 68 (Ind. Ct. App. 1898).

Opinion

Black, J.

— The only assignment of error argued by counsel is in the following form: “The court erred in sustaining the demurrers to first and pecond paragraphs of answer of the board of commissioners of Hendricks county.”

This assignment, it has been held, is joint, and does not present for review the ruling as to the sufficiency of each of the paragraphs severally, but only raises the question as to the sufficiency of the two paragraphs jointly considered. If either' paragraph be bad, the assignment is unavailing. Ketcham v. Barbour, 102 Ind. 576; State, ex rel., v. Faurote, 104 Ind. 287; Noe v. Roll, 134 Ind. 115; Houk v. Hicks, 11 Ind. App. 190; Crist v. Jacoby, 10 Ind. App. 688; Everett v. Farrell, 11 Ind. App. 185; Williamson v. Brandenberg, 6 Ind. App. 97.

By a statute of 1889, Acts 1889, p. 53 (section 5632 et seq., Burns’ R. S. 1894; 4284a et seq., Horner’s R. S. 1897), it was made the duty of the county surveyor to make allotments of shares or portions of ditches or drains, constructed under and by virtue of any law of this State, to landowners and others designated, to be by them, cleaned out annually and kept in repair. By section 3 of said act, the surveyor was required to reduce the allotments to writing and to record them in the drainage record, and thereupon to cause, to be posted up notices of the place where and the time when he would hear all objections to the allotments, a form of notice being set forth in the statute. Provision was also made in said third section for service of a copy of such notice, as summonses are served, upon each resident owner or occupant of land and others designated. By the fourth section, the surveyor was [628]*628required to be present at the time and place mentioned in the notice, and to hear all objections made to such allotments; and after hearing all objections offered, he was required to confirm or change the allotments as justice might require, and to enter an order accordingly, such order to be final and conclusive upon all parties interested, unless appealed from in ten days thereafter. In Beatty v. Pruden, 13 Ind. App. 507, this court had occasion to discuss the faulty punctuation of said third section and to indicate the correct punctuation thereof; and it was held that it was the intention of the legislature to provide in said section for service of personal notice by copy on the resident landowners and others designated; and that where the only notice given of the allotment was by the posting up of written notices in the form prescribed by the statute, and by serving a copy thereof on the township trustee, a resident landowner to whose land a portion of the ditch was apportioned was not bound .by the proceedings of the surveyor, which were void because of want of jurisdiction.' Afterward, by statute-of March 4th, 1897, Acts 1897, p. 137 (section 5634a et seq., Supplement to Burns’ R. S. 1894; 4317ee et seq., Horner’s R. S. 1897), it was provided that in all counties where county surveyors failed to give personal notice to the respective landowners of the allotting of any ditch over which such surveyors had supervision under said statute of 1889, and ditch allotments for cleaning and repairing were by them made, they should give personal notice to the landowners of the-land affected by the allotments, the form of notice-to be the same as that prescribed in said third section, of the act of 1889; and that if the landowner should fail to appear before the surveyor at the time and place prescribed in the notice, and present his objections to his allotment, or if, upon presenting his ob[629]*629jections, the surveyor should hold against him and' adjudge his allotment to be right and equitable, then the allotment should be finally established as previously determined, and he should be required to perform the work allotted to him, “the same as though personal notice had been given him in the first event, and as though there were no irregularity therein,” subject, however, to his right of appeal. It was provided in section 2, that the act should not’be construed to give the surveyor “power and authority to reallot the repairing and cleaning of ditches and making of records as is prescribed in said act referred to in the preceding section, but that he is only to perform such duties as are required of him after the giving of notice as is prescribed in the aforesaid act.” The fifth section of said act of 1889 provided: “The surveyor shall receive three dollars per day for actual services, and the same rate for parts of days, to be paid out of any money in the county treasury not otherwise appropriated, upon a report on oath filed with the county auditor.”

The complaint in the cause before us was in the form of such a report to the county auditor, for itemized services rendered by the appellee in writing notices and hearing objections and making records .for confirming ditch allotments, it being therein stated that such services were rendered under and pursuant to said act of 1897. The report was subscribed and sworn to by the appellee as surveyor of said county, and was disallowed by the appellant.

The appellant, in its second paragraph of answer, alleged, in substance, that the appellee’s claim with each item thereof, was for services claimed to have been rendered the county in writing notices and hearing objections and making records for confirming ditch allotments for divers ditches mentioned and [630]*630set out in said claim by the appellee, acting as surveyor of said county; that all the drains mentioned in the complaint, long prior to the time of rendering -these services, had been alloted by the county surveyor of said county under an act approved February 28th, 1889, providing for the allotment of ditches and drains in the several counties of the State; that said surveyor had been fully paid for making said allotments; that in making them the county surveyor of said county gave notice to the resident landowners to whom allotments had been made of the time and place at which he would be at his office at the town of Danville, to hear any and all objections that might be made by the real estate owners to whom allotments had been made by him on said several drains, by posting up notices in five public places along the line of-said drain in each of the townships through which said several drains extended; that said surveyor was at his office at the time designated in said notices, to hear said objections to said allotments so. made by him; that on each and all of said drains he made a finding that said resident real estate owners to whom allotments had been made had been duly notified by said surveyor of the time and place in which he would hear objections to said allotments; that after hearing the objections to said allotments and making such modifications as in his judgment were just and equitable, he duly confirmed the same and assigned to each real estate owner the portion of the drain that he would be required to clean out and keep in repair, and entered the same upon the drainage record of said county; that he furnished to each of said real estate owners to whom allotments had been made a copy of the profile of that part of said drain which he would be required to clean out and keep in repair, and furnished the trustee of the township in which the [631]

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Bluebook (online)
49 N.E. 976, 19 Ind. App. 626, 1898 Ind. App. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-commissioners-v-trotter-indctapp-1898.