Woodmansee v. Cockerill

185 N.E.2d 439, 115 Ohio App. 409, 21 Ohio Op. 2d 37, 1961 Ohio App. LEXIS 613
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 26, 1961
Docket335
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 185 N.E.2d 439 (Woodmansee v. Cockerill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodmansee v. Cockerill, 185 N.E.2d 439, 115 Ohio App. 409, 21 Ohio Op. 2d 37, 1961 Ohio App. LEXIS 613 (Ohio Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

Sheber, J.

This is an appeal on questions of law and fact from a judgment of the Common Pleas Court of Payette County denying and dismissing plaintiffs-appellants’ petition for an injunction and from the order of that court overruling their motion for a new trial.

This action seeks to enjoin the Joint Board of County Commissioners of Payette and Clinton Counties, Ohio, and the Auditor and Treasurer of Payette County, from proceeding further on a petition for the improvement of a ditch lying in both counties, and particularly from performing any further procedure toward the collection of assessments or letting of a contract for such ditch improvement.

Section 6133.03, Revised Code, provides that a Joint Board of County Commissioners may do all the things that a board of county commissioners may do in a single county improvement, and shall be governed by and be subject to Sections 6131.01 to 6131.64, inclusive, of the Revised Code, relating to single county ditches so far as applicable. That section of the Revised Code provides further that all rights of appeal, and all otlier rights or remedies as provided in Sections 6131.01 to 6131.64, inclusive, of the Revised Code, apply to joint county improvements. The parties have agreed upon this brief statement of facts:

“On April 18,1960, Willard P. Story, S. O. Lanmum, W. B. Custis, Alice C. Beam, R. O. Lanmum, Lorene Sollars, and Loren W. Johnson filed a petition with the Auditor of Fayette County, Ohio, requesting the Commissioners of Fayette and Clinton Counties, Ohio, to clear, clean, widen and deepen the main chan *412 nel of Lees Creek between the termini specified in the petition. Thereafter on May 25, 1960, the commissioners for said counties viewed the proposed improvement.

“On June 10, 1960, a preliminary estimate of the cost of said proposed improvement was filed by the County Engineers of said Fayette and Clinton Counties. A copy of said preliminary estimate is included in the papers filed in this cause. On June 10,1960, at the first hearing on said proposed improvement, the said Commissioners of said Fayette and Clinton Counties found for said improvement.

“On September 12, 1960, the County Engineers of said Fayette and Clinton Counties filed certain reports and schedules in connection with said proposed improvement. A copy of said reports and schedules is included in the papers filed in this cause.

“On October 18, 1960, said Commissioners of Fayette and Clinton Counties brought said matter on for final hearing, affirmed said former order made by finding in favor of said improvement and confirmed the schedule of assessments prepared by the County Engineers of said Fayette and Clinton Counties.

“On November 5, 1960, plaintiffs-appellants, being land owners in the area of said proposed improvement and having been assessed in various amounts for said purported improvement, filed a petition in the Fayette County Common Pleas Court asking for an injunction enjoining defendants from performing any further acts toward collecting said assessments or the letting of a contract for said purported improvement.”

The petition for injunction alleges that in the proceedings for the improvements of the joint county ditch by the Joint Board of County Commissioners and others, the provisions of Sections 6131.07, 6131.09, 6131.15 and 6131.16 of the Revised Code were not followed; that said provisions of the Revised Code are mandatory and jurisdictional; that the violation of those sections of the Code has rendered the proceedings invalid, will cause great and irreparable injury to plaintiffs and all other land owners involved in said proceedings; and that plaintiffs have no other adequate remedy at law or in equity.

The defendant-appellee, Harry Allen, Auditor of Fayette County, is, by virtue of his office, the clerk to the other defendants, the Joint Board of County Commissioners of Fayette and Clinton Counties. Harry Allen alone filed an answer herein. In *413 Ms answer he admitted the allegations of plaintiffs’ petition in paragraphs one, two, three, four, five and all of paragraph six excepting the allegation therein that “the provisions of Revised Code Sections 6131.01 to 6131.64 inclusive and 6133.01 to 6133.16 inclusive enumerate and make mandatory certain specific duties which the county officials must perform under the provisions for ditch improvements. ’ ’

Defendants admit that notice was not given to those landowners named in the petition and of legal record on the date of filing the petition, as required by Section 6131.07, Revised Code; that the engineer’s preliminary report contained no statement as to whether benefits from the proposed improvement are likely to exceed the costs, together with a statement of all factors favorable and unfavorable to the proposed improvement; and that the engineer did not enter into his schedules an explanation of the benefits by reason of the construction of the improvement, upon which the assessment is based.

By agreement of the parties to this action the transcript of all papers filed in the ditch proceeding before the Joint Board of County Commissioners of Fayette and Clinton Counties, together with a transcript of the final hearing on the ditch proceedings before the Joint Board of County Commissioners have been submitted to this court for consideration as evidence.

Plaintiffs allege, in support of their petition for an injunction, that they were not notified of the date and hour for the view of the proposed improvement by defendants as is required by the provisions of Section 6131.07 of the Revised Code. The evidence reveals that the Clerk of the Joint Board of County Commissioners did not comply strictly with the provisions of that section of the Code, which provides in part:

“As soon as the dates for the view and first hearing have been fixed by the board, the clerk shall prepare and mail to the ■petitioner a written notice, directed to the owners affected by the proposed improvement, which notice shall set forth the pendency, substance, and prayer of the petition, the date, hour, and starting place of the view and the date and hour of the first hearing. The clerk shall also prepare copies of the notice. At least twenty days before the date set for the view, one copy of said notice shall be mailed by first class mail in a five day return envelope to the owners named in the petition and of legal record on the *414 date of- filing of the petition. * * * The addressee of any letter ■which may be returned undelivered shall be notified by publication of a list of such addresses in two issues of a newspaper of general circulation in the area affected by the proposed improvement * * *. Such publication shall serve as public notice to all owners of the pendency of the improvement whether or not they were individually named and notified.”

The clerk did not mail notices of the date and hour of the viewing to the landowners to be affected by the proposed improvement but did publish a notice styled, “Notice of time of view and first hearing to the owners of land affected by the proposed improvement.”

We must determine whether the provisions of Section 6131.07, Revised Code, relating to the manner of giving notice are mandatory or directory and whether they are jurisdictional.

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Related

In Re Single County Ditch
361 N.E.2d 1353 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1976)
Lowe v. Hubbell
275 N.E.2d 618 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 N.E.2d 439, 115 Ohio App. 409, 21 Ohio Op. 2d 37, 1961 Ohio App. LEXIS 613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodmansee-v-cockerill-ohioctapp-1961.