§ 18-15-1008 — Appropriation of land without owner's consent

(a) Whenever the board of directors or commissioners of any levee or drainage district may have appropriated, or shall appropriate, any land for right-of-way for the construction and maintenance of either levees, ditches, canals, or drains, and constructed levees or drains thereon without having procured the consent of the owner of the land to construct the levees or drains or without having procured the right-ofway, either by purchase, donations, or condemnation, the owner, when his or her cause of action has not been barred by the statute of limitations, shall have a cause of action against the board of directors or commissioners for the market value of the land at the time it was actually occupied. (b) The owner may also claim such damages for inconveniences of crossing from one (1) portion of the tract, then owned by the party seeking to recover, to the other portion of the tract, as he or she has sustained, and such damages as the owner may have sustained on account of obstruction of natural drainage to the tract of land over which the levee or drain may have been or shall be constructed, not to exceed the cost of constructing artificial drainage.

Legislative History

Acts 1945, No. 177, § 8; A.S.A. 1947, § 35-1108.