§ 48-2060 — Invalidity of liens or bonds; extent of validity; means to secure interest of persons damaged

A. If the lien of an assessment or reassessment or of a bond issued to represent the amount assessed on any lot is held invalid by a court because a portion of the improvement ordered was not within the power of the board to order or was not properly embraced in the contract for the work or in the assessment made to cover the expenses, the owner of the warrant or the holder of the bond is entitled to a judgment determining what portion of the assessment is legal. The district shall, within sixty days and pursuant to the directions of the judgment, issue to him a new assessment for an amount which the court finds is the reasonable value of the portion of the improvement legally authorized by the proceedings, which amount shall be reassessed against the property in the same manner and with the same effect as provided for issuing the original assessment, and may be enforced as an original assessment. The holder of bonds representing the original assessment is entitled to new bonds on each lot representing the amount of the reassessment.

B. If the lien of an assessment, or of a bond issued for an assessment amount, is held invalid by a court for any cause arising after the authority of the board attaches to order the work, or if the lien is defeated or held invalid for any cause, and it also appears that the owner of the property, holding it at the time the notice of the award of the contract was published, had personal knowledge of the intention to order the award of the contract, and has not filed a protest against the improvement or a notice of his objection to the award of the contract, the owner of the assessment or bond may recover from the owner of the lot covered by the assessment such amount as the court finds the lot to have been actually benefited by the improvement, not exceeding the amount which would have been properly assessed against the lot.