Whisenand v. Van Clark

288 N.W. 915, 227 Iowa 800
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 12, 1939
DocketNo. 44975.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 288 N.W. 915 (Whisenand v. Van Clark) 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
Whisenand v. Van Clark, 288 N.W. 915, 227 Iowa 800 (iowa 1939).

Opinion

Stiger, J.

In 1919, J. M. Hall was the owner of four tracts of land in Section 34, Township 77, Range 24, Warren county, Iowa, which at that time was mortgaged to the Central Trust Company. The mortgage was assigned to plaintiff who foreclosed and obtained sheriff’s deed in 1927. The record does not show the date of the assignment.

During the years 1919, 1920 and 1921 the board of supervisors of Warren county established a drainage improvement known as Drainage District No. 6 under 30 General Assembly chapter 68, sections 1989-al to 1989-a60, 1913 Supplement. The board levied the assessment with the provision that if an owner waived objections of illegality or irregularity as to the assessments the taxes could be paid in three annual installments under the provisions of section 1989-al2. Subsequently, the board, on May 5, 1922, without notice, passed a resolution finding the assessment was too great to be paid in one year and ordered the assessment to be paid in seven annual installments commencing in 1926.

In December, 1925, the land was sold to defendant, J. W. *802 Van Clark, wbo will be referred to herein as defendant, for general taxes and for delinquent interest on three installments of the drainage tax. Appellant .redeemed from these sales in 1928.

In 1928, appellant’s land was again sold for general taxes and unpaid assessments to defendant and appellant again redeemed in 1931. The redemption made by appellant completed payments of all installments and interest except the last installment due in 1932.

On January 4, 1937, the North % of NW^ SE[4> the North % of NE% SW%, the SE% NW%, all in said Section 34, were sold for the last installment .due on the assessment to defendant who received the certificates of sale which appellant seeks to cancel in this proceeding.

I. Appellant claims the drainage district was not legally established because (a) notice of the proceedings was not given as required by law, (b) no proper proof of service of notice was filed, or recorded, as required by law.

Section 1989-a3 provided that when the engineer’s plan ■ for a drainage district had been finally adopted by the board of supervisors, the auditor shall cause notice to be given to the owner of each tract of land within the proposed district, and to each lien holder of any land through which or abutting upon which the proposed improvement extends, of the pendency of the petition to establish the district.

The statute required notice to be served by publication once each week for two consecutive weeks, the last publication to be not less than 20 days prior to the day set for hearing upon the petition, proof of service to be made by affidavit of the publisher.

Section 1989-a42 requires the county auditor to keep a book known as the Drainage Record and to record therein all of the drainage proceedings. Defendant offered in evidence certain pages of the Drainage Record which contained the notice of the improvement containing all of the statutory requirements and the affidavit of the publisher of the notice showing publication of the notice once each week for two consecutive weeks over 20 days prior to the date fixed for the hearing on the petition. Appellant objected to the offer of this evidence as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial and no proof of service or publica *803 lion on file and further objected to the offer on the ground that “plaintiff’s title is based on the mortgage given by the title holder, J. M. Hall, to the Central Trust Company of Des Moines, Iowa, and the notice offered so far as lien holders are concerned contains the name of the Central Trust Company instead of the Central Trust Companjr of Des Moines, Iowa, and is not sufficient to confer jurisdiction as against the holder of the mortgage. ’ ’

Appellant’s claim that there was “no proof of service or publication on file” is not sustained by the record and as the proposed ditch did not extend through or abut upon the land on which the Central Trust Company of Des Moines held its mortgage, the failure to give the correct name of the trust company was not a jurisdictional defect. The notice to owners included J. M. Hall and actual occupants. Appellant’s objection to this evidence cannot be sustained.

II. Section 1989-al2 requires the auditor, after the commissioners have filed their reports of the classification of lands, to serve notice upon each owner and actual occupants of land included in the district in the time and manner provided for the establishment of the district.

The affidavit of publication of the notice was sworn to by the publisher of the newspaper before the clerk of the district court of Warren county. Appellant complains that there is “no indication that the seal of the clerk was attached. This does not comply with the law”, and therefore, the proceedings to apportion benefits and assess costs were void.

The jurat reads “sworn to and subscribed by Seth F. Shen-ton [the publisher] in my presence this 30th day of July, A. D., 1921. A. R. Smith, Clerk of the District Court. ’ ’ Section 1215, subsection 3, 1935 Code (section 393, 1897 Code) which authorizes a clerk of the district court to administer oaths, does not require that the seal of the court of which he is the clerk be attached. Ames Evening Times v. Ames Weekly Tribune, 183 Iowa 1188, 168 N. W. 106. However, the statute did not require proof of service of notice of the assessment to be made by affidavit. In addition to the Drainage Record which set out the notice and affidavit, defendant introduced issues of the In-dianola Herald showing two successive publications of the notice of assessment which contained all of the statutory requirements.

*804 Tbe notice and proof of service of notice were sufficient and gave tbe board jurisdiction to make tbe assessment.

III. Another proposition relied on for reversal is that because tbe board failed to follow the plan fixed by statute for assessing benefits, the assessment was void. Code, 1913 Supplement, section 1989-al2 provides for a graduated scale of benefits and that “In making tbe said estimate tbe lands receiving tbe greatest benefit shall be marked on scale of one hundred and those benefited in less degree shall be marked with such percentage of one hundred as tbe benefit received bears in proportion thereto.” In the report of the commissioners it appears that land receiving the greatest benefit on a scale of 100 was assessed at $24 per acre. The report shows, for illustration, that one of the tracts belonging to James M. Hall consisting, of 40 acres was classified at 47 per cent. Apparently, to arrive at the amount of the assessment, the board, instead of multiplying the figure 24 ($24 per acre) by 47, multiplied the number of acres by 47 and this product of 18.80 acres was multiplied by $24 per acre, making an assessment of $451.20. The same result would have been reached if the board had multiplied 24 by 47 which equals $11.28 per acre and multiplied this sum by 40, which makes the assessment $451.20.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
288 N.W. 915, 227 Iowa 800, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whisenand-v-van-clark-iowa-1939.