Chicago & North Western Railway Co. v. Payne Creek Drainage District

26 N.W.2d 607, 148 Neb. 139, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 29
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1947
DocketNo. 32131
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 26 N.W.2d 607 (Chicago & North Western Railway Co. v. Payne Creek Drainage District) 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
Chicago & North Western Railway Co. v. Payne Creek Drainage District, 26 N.W.2d 607, 148 Neb. 139, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 29 (Neb. 1947).

Opinion

Messmore, J.

This is a suit for an injunction, challenging the jurisdiction of the Payne Creek Drainage District to levy units of benefit against the property of the Chicago and North Western Railway Company, or to let a contract, or to proceed with the proposed drainage improvement, for the reason that there are jurisdictional defects in the procedure for the organization of the drainage district. The defendant district demurred to the plaintiff’s petition filed March 4, 1946. The trial court sustained the demurrer, denied a temporary injunction, and dismissed the plaintiff’s petition. Plaintiff appealed. Plaintiff thereupon filed a petition for injunction pending the appeal, the purpose being to maintain the status quo of the proceedings. The injunction was granted, conditioned upon the plaintiff filing a bond in the sum of $2,000, to be approved by the clerk of the district court, to pay all damages sustained by the defendant if the judgment appealed from is affirmed. The plaintiff did not appeal from any of the proceedings with reference to the organization of the drainage district.

The plaintiff as appellant contends that the trial court erred: In refusing to grant a temporary injunction; by dismissing the plaintiff’s petition without first having a final hearing at which evidence might be taken; and by sustaining the defendant’s demurrer.

The appellant sets forth in its petition certain claimed defects in the organization of the drainage district which it contends are jurisdictional, rendering the pro[142]*142ceedings for the formation of such district null and void, and that this action for injunctive process constitutes the proper procedure in such a case.

“Drainage proceedings may be collaterally attacked where they are not merely irregular, but are void for jurisdictional defects, * * 28 C. J. S., Drains, § 36, p. 335.

Defects on the face of the record showing want of jurisdiction are ground for collateral attack. See 19 C. J., Drains, § 45, p. 635, note 70 (b); Donner v. Highway Comrs., 278 Ill. 189, 115 N. E. 831.

Appellant cites Haecke v. Eastern Sarpy County Drainage District, 141 Neb. 628, 4 N. W. 2d 744: “ ‘Statutory provisions authorizing assessments of special taxes against property benefited by public improvements are to be strictly construed, and it must affirmatively appear that the taxing authorities have taken all steps which the law makes jurisdictional; the failure of the record to show such proceedings will" not be aided by presumptions.’ Morse v. City of Omaha, 67 Neb. 426, 93 N. W. 734.”

It is the appellant’s contention, if the record fails to show affirmatively the necessary jurisdictional steps in the formation of a drainage district as required by chapter 31, article 4, R. S. 1943, jurisdiction does not exist, and the proceedings are null and void. We will discuss the alleged jurisdictional defects about which complaint is made in their logical sequence.

The appellant’s petition alleges in substance that the petition for the formation of the drainage district did not set forth the number of landowners in the proposed district as required by section 31-402, R. S. 1943, to disclose whether the petitioners constituted the requisite percentage of landowners and, further, that the board of county commissioners made no finding or record of such facts.

Section 31-402, R. S. 1943, provides: “When the district proposed contains real estate owned by less [143]*143than twenty persons or corporations, one fourth of said number shall be sufficient to petition for the formation of such district. When there are more than twenty such owners, ten or more owners of real estate therein may sign a petition for the formation of such district, and file said petition with the county clerk of the county having the largest body of land within the proposed district. The petition shall suggest the boundaries of the district, the number of directors that the district shall have if formed, and the amount of bond each shall give.”

The proceedings for the organization of the drainage district are attached to and made a part of appellant’s petition. The petition for the formation of the drainage district, filed in the office of the county clerk of Stanton county on June 18, 1945, and addressed to the board of county commissioners, complied with section 31-401, R. S. 1943, which sets forth the conditions upon which a drainage district may be formed. The petition set forth that the undersigned owners of real estate embraced within the proposed boundaries requested the board of county commissioners to form a drainage district under the provisions of sections 31-401 to 31-450 inclusive, R. S. 1943, and suggested the boundaries of the proposed district to be fixed as lying within the district. The petition further set forth the name of the proposed district, that three directors be elected to manage the affairs of ■ the district and be required to give bond ,in the sum of $500 each. The petition was signed by five real estate owners embraced within the proposed district.

Section 31-402, R. S. 1943, does not require that the petition for the creation of a drainage district must state the number of property owners and recite how many sign the petition. This provision of the statute indicates the petition for the organization of a drainage district will be sufficient if it appears that it is actually signed, as a matter of fact, by the required percentage [144]*144of property owners within the proposed district, and such fact may be shown in the proceedings for the formation of the district. The only mandatory requirements of the foregoing provision of the statute are that the petition shall suggest the boundaries of the district, the number of directors that the district shall have if formed, and the amount of bond each shall give. The appellant, in its petition, does not allege that the petition for the organization of the drainage district was not signed by a sufficient number of landowners. The petition for the formation of the drainage district discloses that the signers thereof petition the board of county commissioners to form a drainage district under the provisions of sections 31-401 to 31-450 inclusive, R. S. 1943. It will be noted that section 31-402, R. S. 1943, is included in' the petition for the formation of the drainage district, so it is apparent that the county board of commissioners acted upon the petition to determine the percentage of signers thereof required by section 31-402, R. S. 1943.

The proceedings for the organization of the drainage district, which includes' the order for publication of the notice of hearing to fix the boundaries of the drainage district, the hearing pursuant to the published notice, and the fixing of the boundaries as set forth in the petition, and the fact that 1195 acres of land voted out of a possible 1554 acres, all show conclusively that a sufficient number of landowners' signed the petition for the organization of the drainage district. Appellant’s contention is not meritorious.

The appellant contends the board of county commissioners at the hearing dated July 16, 1945, did not fix the boundaries of the district by description as required by law, but merely by reference to the petition for the organization of the district. The appellant further contends that the notice published by the county clerk and calling for the election on August 14, 1945, erroneously [145]*145stated that the county board of commissioners had fixed the boundaries by description.

Section 31-404, R. S.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 N.W.2d 607, 148 Neb. 139, 1947 Neb. LEXIS 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-north-western-railway-co-v-payne-creek-drainage-district-neb-1947.