Wood v. South River Drainage District

422 S.W.2d 33, 1967 Mo. LEXIS 716
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 11, 1967
DocketNo. 52720
StatusPublished

This text of 422 S.W.2d 33 (Wood v. South River Drainage District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wood v. South River Drainage District, 422 S.W.2d 33, 1967 Mo. LEXIS 716 (Mo. 1967).

Opinion

HOUSER, Commissioner.

This is an appeal from an order sustaining defendants’ motion for a summary judgment on the pleadings on the basis that as a matter of law plaintiff “has stated no cause of action.” Plaintiff, a landowner, brought an action for damages against South River Drainage District, a public corporation, and the members of its board of supervisors, in two counts. Count I follows:

“Comes now the Plaintiff, Margaret Wood, and for Count I of her first amended petition states:
“1. That the Plaintiff is a resident of Marion County, Missouri and is the sole owner of land in Marion County, Missouri, operated under the business name of Bay-view Resort and Subdivision.
“2. That the South River Drainage District is a public corporation created, organized and existing under and by virtue of an act of the legislature of the State of Missouri relating to the organization of drainage districts by Circuit Courts.
“3. That said Drainage District was incorporated by Decree of the Circuit Court of Marion County, Missouri and entered of [34]*34record in the office of the Recorder of Deeds in Marion County, Missouri.
“4. That the Board of Supervisors of the South River Drainage District are the governing Board of the Drainage District and are joined as parties to this petition in their representative capacity only and not as individuals.
“5. That the South River Drainage District was organized to construct a levee fourteen miles in length, said levee to separate the Mississippi River from the Bay de Charles and that the Bay de Charles and the Bay de Charles Basin are both in Marion County, Missouri; that on February 12, 1918, the South River Drainage District was given the additional authority by the Circuit Court of Marion County, Missouri, to purchase and install a pump and to construct a pumping station to use to pump drainage and seepage water from the land behind the levee, to increase the land available for agricultural purposes, said land lying in the Bay de Charles, Basin, with said additional authority including the construction of ditches, bridges, private roads, tile lines and repairs of said facilities.
“6. That the Bayview Subdivision has been platted as a subdivision by James H. Fleming, Registered Land Surveyor and certified on the 6th day of October, 1960, to enable Plaintiff to sell plated (sic) lots in said subdivision.
“7. That the lots of the Bayview Subdivision lay within the South River Drainage District and adjacent to the Bay de Charles which is a natural body of water lying within the South River Drainage District and separated from the Mississippi River by a levee constructed and maintained by the South River Drainage District.
“8. That the Decree of the Marion County Circuit Court authorized Defendants to use the pumping station of the Drainage District to drain the Bay de Charles so as to facilitate the drainage of seepage and drainage water which collected in the Basin and behind the 'levee separating the Bay de Charles from the Mississippi River to make additional land available for agricultural purposes.
“9. That the Defendants have pumped water from the Bay de Charles much in excess of the normal and reasonable needs of the Drainage District, and in excess of the authorization granted to said district by the Circuit Court of Marion County, Missouri in its Decree creating the district and pumping operations.
“10. That by virtue of the excessive and unreasonable pumping of the Bay de Charles by the Defendants the Bay de Charles is no longer suitable or usable as a pleasure or fishing area due to the face that the level of the water in the Bay is so diminished by the excessive and unreasonable pumping of the Defendants as to make the Bay a low, swampy and muddy pool of water.
“11. That the severe, unreasonable, excessive and damaging pumping operations of the Defendants began and have occurred from and after the time that damages were awarded by Commissioners, and that the damages awarded did not, or could not have anticipated damages suffered by Plaintiff from and after the beginning of the excessive and unreasonable pumping by the Defendants.
“12. That by virtue of the Defendants excessive pumping of the Bay de Charles, the Defendants have taken the land and property of the Plaintiff by the severe and permanent diminution in value of the same and have done so without just compensation to the Plaintiff for the loss of the value of her land.
“13. That the Plaintiff has suffered a direct, permanent, and continuous pecuniary loss by the excessive pumping of the Defendants in the diminution of the value of her land without just compensation therefor.
“WHEREFORE, Plaintiff prays judgment against the Defendants in the amount [35]*35of Thirty-two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($32,500) and for such other and further relief as the Court shall deem just and proper in the premises, and for her costs expended for Count I of this petition.”

In Count II plaintiff made many of the same allegations, tailored to recover $14,000 “for the permanent loss of her fishing and pleasure resort business.”

The drainage district moved for summary judgment for the reason that the facts stated in their affidavit “establish as a matter of law that Plaintiff has stated no cause of action against this Defendant.” The affidavit recited that the drainage district was originally organized by the County Court of Marion County at its August Term, 1903; that the land in which Bay View Subdivision lies was viewed by commissioners appointed by the court, who made a report of benefits and damages on the basis of which the court issued an order assessing benefits against the land; that plaintiff’s predecessors in title made no objection to the report and did not appeal therefrom; that the district was reorganized by circuit court decree in 1917; that the lands now owned by plaintiff were continued as a part of the district and that plaintiff’s predecessors in title made no objection thereto; that by county court order in 1909 and a circuit court decree in 1918 the district was given additional authority to purchase and erect a pumping plant at its present site and authority to remove accumulated waters from within the district by pumping from the Bay de Charles; that commissioners were appointed to assess benefits and damages accruing to all the lands in the district and to appraise the lands to be used for holding basins and drainage works; that the commissioners’ report was filed in and incorporated in a decree of the circuit court, to which no objections were made or filed by plaintiff’s predecessors in title.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
422 S.W.2d 33, 1967 Mo. LEXIS 716, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wood-v-south-river-drainage-district-mo-1967.