§ 14-123-420 — Protection of persons injured by change of levee location

(a) In all cases where the board of directors or commissioners of any levee district has, prior or subsequent to the passage of this act, agreed, contracted, or promised, formally or informally, to pay any landowner or landowners for damages to land caused by withdrawal of levee protection therefrom, or by enclosing the land within a loop or circle of the levee, or surrounding the land by the levee, the agreement, contract, promise, or understanding, when evidenced by a writing, whether a formal contract or a resolution of the board or other instrument, shall be valid and enforceable between the parties, except as to the amount of the damages, and amount of the damages which the landowner or landowners will sustain by reason of a change of the levee as provided in this section shall be assessed in the manner provided by Acts 1905, No. 53 [repealed]. (b) Damage shall include all damages which will result from the change in the position of the levee including injuries to natural and artificial drainage, withdrawal of levee protection therefrom, enclosing the lands within a loop or circle of the levees surrounding the lands by the levee, the inconvenience in passing over the levees, injury to crops and houses on the right-of-way injured or destroyed by the reconstruction of the levees, and any other damages which may be caused by the change in the location of the levees. (c) The damages shall be recoverable, although the change in the levee may have been made upon the request of the federal government under and by virtue of the powers vested in it by the acts of Congress called "Flood Control."

Legislative History

Acts 1932 (2nd Ex. Sess.), No. 14, §§ 1, 2, p. 31; Pope's Dig., §§ 4579, 4580; A.S.A. 1947, § 21-636.