Ginn v. Hinton

91 N.E. 1093, 174 Ind. 296, 1910 Ind. LEXIS 109
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 2, 1910
DocketNo. 21,554
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 91 N.E. 1093 (Ginn v. Hinton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ginn v. Hinton, 91 N.E. 1093, 174 Ind. 296, 1910 Ind. LEXIS 109 (Ind. 1910).

Opinion

Hadley, J.

This is a proceeding under section seventeen of an act of 1907 (Acts 1907 p. 508, §6151 Burns 1908), by appellees for the construction of a ditch, less than two miles [297]*297in length, wholly within Delaware county, and alleged to cost not to exceed $300, exclusive of tile. The county surveyor, to whom the auditor had referred the petition, filed his favorable report in the auditor’s office on April 19, 1909, in form and substance as required by law, in which it was shown that an assessment of benefits of $196 had been made against the lands of appellant. On April 20, 1909, the petitioners served upon appellant a formal notice that said report had been filed and would be heard by the board of commissioners on May 1, 1909. On May 5, 1909, appellant appeared, pursuant to said notice, and filed a remonstrance on statutory grounds defined in section four of said act of 1907 (§6143 Burns 1908).

Appellees filed their motion to strike out this remonstrance, for the following reasons: (1) Because it was not filed within ten days after the filing of the surveyor’s report, exclusive of Sundays and the day of filing. (2) Because it was not filed within ten days after notice was served on said remonstrator, exclusive of Sundays and the day of service of said notice.

The board sustained appellees’ motion to strike out the remonstrance, and appellant appealed to the circuit court, where the same motion was refiled and again sustained, and cause dismissed and remanded back to the commissioners, with instructions to proceed with the construction of the drain as provided by law.

1. Did the court err in dismissing appellant’s remonstrance? We think it did. Appellees’ motion to strike out appellant’s remonstrance and the arguments relating thereto center in the provisions of section three of said act of 1907 (§6142 Burns 1908), which relate generally to the construction of drains. But under the view we have taken of the question, the general provisions of said §6142, relating to notice, time of filing and hearing of report, and remonstrances, have no application to a special proceeding begun and prosecuted under §6151, supra.

[298]*298It is clear enough that the legislature intended by §6151, supra, to provide a cheaper, simpler and speedier proceeding for the construction of less important drains. Its provisions apply only to drains, located wholly within the county, less than two miles in length, including all arms, and which will cost not exceeding $300, exclusive of the tile. It is enacted in said §6151 that when it is desirable to construct such a drain as has just been described, the petitioners, instead of applying to the circuit court or superior court, as provided in a former section of the act, may apply therefor by petition to the board of commissioners of such county at any regular monthly session of said board, and all provisions hereinbefore made as to such petition, notice of hearing, reference to the drainage commissioners, remonstrances and exceptions thereto, action on report, and all other matters relating to such work, shall be had and concluded as far as applicable by and under the direction of such board of county commissioners, as hereinbefore in this act provided should be by the circuit or superior court, except as provided for in this section — that is to say, the procedure in the construction of the smaller class of drains shall be the same as that provided for the general class, except as otherwise provided in said special proceeding.

The requirements in the special proceeding under §6151, supra, applying to the petition, reference and the filing, notice and hearing of the report and remonstrances, are distinctly and radically different from the requirements of §6142, supra, and must be complied with, without reference to the procedure prescribed in other sections of the act.

2. In the latter or general statute it is provided that twenty days’ notice of the filing of the petition and the day for docketing it must be given to those named in the petition as affected by the proposed drain, and any person named in the petition as the owner of land shall have ten days, exclusive of Sunday and the day for docketing, after such docketing, to file with the court any remonstrance [299]*299or objection, and after said ten days have elapsed the court shall consider the remonstrance; that is, upon the expiration of ten days after the docketing, the door of the court is closed against a remonstrance by any one named in the petition, and if no remonstrance has been filed, the court must refer the petition to the drainage commissioners, who must in season report to the court upon the feasibility of the work, and also set forth any lands they find will be affected by the improvements which are not mentioned in the petition.

With respect to the report of the drainage commissioners, it is provided in §6142, supra, that in all cases where lands named in the report are not named in the petition, “the court shall fix the time for hearing the report, and it shall be the duty of the petitioners * * * to give ten days’ notice to the owners of such lands of the filing of such report in the same manner as is herein required to be given of. the filing and docketing of the petition, which notice shall state the time for hearing such report. * * * The same proceedings shall be had in regard to such report as if all the lands mentioned therein, and the owners thereof, had been named in the original notice of the filing of the petition. ’ ’

Under the latter provision it has been held by this court that a landowner brought into the proceeding by the report of the drainage commissioners must exercise his right to remonstrate within ten days after the service of notice of the hearing of the report. Goodrich v. Stangland (1900), 155 Ind. 279; Keiser v. Mills (1904), 162 Ind. 366.

1. As before said, the procedure provided by section seventeen of the act of 1907 (§6151, supra), is distinctly different, and manifestly intended to supplant that contained in the former sections of said act.

It will be observed: (1) That in the construction of a drain under §6151, supra, the proceeding must be begun by filing the petition before the board of commissioners, instead [300]

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Related

Benbow v. Gray
128 N.E. 607 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1920)
Rinker v. Hahn
92 N.E. 729 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1910)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 N.E. 1093, 174 Ind. 296, 1910 Ind. LEXIS 109, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ginn-v-hinton-ind-1910.