In re the Appeal of Head

118 N.W. 884, 141 Iowa 651
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 19, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 118 N.W. 884 (In re the Appeal of Head) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Appeal of Head, 118 N.W. 884, 141 Iowa 651 (iowa 1908).

Opinion

Deemer, J. —

Pursuant to law there were filed with the boards of supervisors of Greene and Calhoun Counties, Iowa, petitions, signed by eight or more persons, for the establishment of a drainage district comprising lands in both counties. With these petitions were bonds in statutory form signed by two of the petitioners. The board of supervisors of Greene County approved the bond and appointed one Porbes to act in conjunction with the commissioners to be appointed by the board of supervisors of Calhoun County. The board of supervisors of Calhoun County appointed one Mills to act as commissioner for it, and according to the return made by them these two appointed one Thompson, a competent engineer, to act with them. The three viewed the proposed district and recommended its establishment as prayed, with certain exceptions, which were stated. Accompanying their report was a map or plat showing the lands included, the courses and depths of the ditches or drains, and the character thereof, including the sizes of tiles to be used. They also gave an estimate of the cost and stated that the number of acres to be drained were 5,025. The report also contained the names of the owners of the lands within the district, and [653]*653some other matters not' necessary to be mentioned at this time. Thereafter and during the month of September, 1906, the county auditor of Greene county cáused notices to be served upon the parties owning lands within the district of the report of the commissioners and engineer, and that all claims for damages should be filed not less than five days before a joint meeting of the boards of the two counties, which was fixed for October 12, 1906, at the office of the county auditor in Greene County. These notices were served personally upon plaintiff and .some thirty-two others, and by publication upon the remainder; the last of said publications being on September 20, 1906. Head filed objections to the establishment of the district with the auditor of Greene County, Iowa, on October 2, 1906, which embraced something like twelve grounds, and he also filed a claim for damages in the sum of $1,500. The boards of the -two counties met on the day set in joint session and heard the objections to the establishment of the district, and, finding that claims for damages were on file, the meeting was adjourned until November 14, 1906, to be reconvened at the auditor’s office in Greene County. The joint boards reconvened November 14, and the petitioners for the establishment of the ditch were permitted to amend their petitions to make them conform to the recommendations of the commissioners and the engineer, and after a full hearing it was found that the drainage districts known as No-. 8 in Greene County and No. 55 in Calhoun County were necessary to the public health, benefit, utility, convenience, and welfare, and, in view of the claims for damages filed by Head and others, appraisers were appointed to award damages; they to report to the joint board at Rockwell City, in Calhoun County, on December 21, 1906, to which time and place the meeting was adjourned. The appraisers named entered upon the discharge of their duties and in due season made report of their findings, in which they awarded Head damages in the sum of $1,500. [654]*654Payment of these damages was guaranteed by one of the petitioners for the drain or ditch. On December 12, Head filed something like thirty more objections to the establishment of the district, in which he .attacked all the prior proceedings, and also challenged the constitutionality of the law, and further objected to the allowance for damages. These objections were disregarded by the joint boards, the drainage district was established, and damages fixed according to the award of the appraisers. Further proceedings were also directed according to law. Albert Head appealed to the district court of Greene County from the action of the joint boards sitting in Calhoun County by filing bond with and giving notice to the county auditor of Greene and not with and to the auditor of Calhoun County. The auditor of Calhoun County did not certify a copy of the proceedings in his county, and, when the case was reached for trial in the Greene.. County district court, appellees, the drainage district, and others moved to dismiss, for the reason that no full and complete transcript of the proceedings had been filed as required by law. Appellees also moved •to dismiss the appeal because no notice was served or filed with the auditor of Calhoun County, and for the further reason that no bond was executed or filed with him as provided by law. It was also contended that no objections filed after October 12, 1906, could be considered. After a full hearing the trial court confirmed the action of the joint boards and dismissed Head’s appeal. This appeal followed.

The first proposition in the case is the jurisdiction of the district court and of this court. It is contended that appellant, Head, should have given bond to and served notice of his appeal upon the auditor of C'alhoun County, as well as upon the auditor of Greene County. This contention involves a construction of certain sections of the so-called drainage act, which we here set out either in substance or in extenso. Generally speaking, the board of [655]*655supervisors of the county in which the drainage district is to- be established has exclusive original jurisdiction thereof, but it is provided by section 1949 of the Code that:

When the improvement petitioned for extends into or through two or more contiguous counties or parts thereof, the boards of supervisors of each of the counties, upon the presentation of the petition, shall appoint a commissioner, and the commissioners thus appointed, within twenty days after the selection of the one. last named, shall meet and locate the same through or into said counties. They shall appoint a competent engineer, who shall have charge of the construction of the work, and with him shall make a survey of the proposed levee, ditch, drain, or change of water course, and make written return thereof to the county auditors of the several counties in which the location shall be made in whole or in part; which return shall in all respects be the same as is required in case of the location of such improvement in but a single county; and thereafter all subsequent proceedings relating. to the condemnation or taking of land, the compensation therefor, damages on account of the work, assessment of .lands for taxation, and in every other matter and thing, shall in all respects be the same as in like cases where the improvement is situated in but one county. Appeals in such ease may be taken to the district cotrrt of the county where the land is situated.

Section 30, chapter 68, Acts 30th General Assembly (section 1989a(29), Code Supp. 1907), also contains this provision:

When the desired levee or drainage district extends into or through two or more counties and = embraces land in two or more counties, the petition of one .or .more owners of land to be affected or benefited by such improver ment. shall be presented to the county auditor of - each county into or. through which said levee, or drainage district will extend, accompanied by a bond to be filed with, the county auditor of each of the said counties at the .time of filing such petition, conditioned as provided when the district is [656]*656wholly within one county, in an amount and with sureties satisfactory to, and approved by, the board of supervisors.

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Bluebook (online)
118 N.W. 884, 141 Iowa 651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-appeal-of-head-iowa-1908.