§ 69-6-135 — Hearing on report - Notice - Objections - Decree - Restriction on assessments

(a) When the commissioners have filed their written report, including the proposed assessment for benefits upon the lands benefited by the project, the court shall set a date for the hearing of the matter upon the report of the commissioners and direct that publication be made for all landowners and other persons interested in the lands to be affected by the proposed improvement in some newspaper of general circulation in each county in which are located lands affected by the proposed improvement. This publication shall be once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks, the last publication to be at least ten (10) days before the date set for the hearing. The publication shall notify all known landowners and other interested persons generally without being named of the hearing of the report of the commissioners apportioning the cost of the proposed plan, the improvement or project between the lands benefited in proportion to such benefits and setting out the proposed assessments against each tract of land benefited. In addition, the publication should notify such landowners or other interested parties of the time and place of such hearing, when and where they should appear, and show cause why the report of the commissioners should not be approved, and why the assessment should not be levied upon the lands to create the funds necessary for such proposed improvement. (b) The landowners or other interested persons shall make their appearance and file their objections, if any, in writing on or before the time fixed for such hearing. (c) At the time and place fixed for such hearing, the court shall proceed to consider the report of the commissioners and any exceptions or objections filed, as well as any proof offered in support of the exceptions or objections or in support of the commissioners' report. Whereupon, the court will sustain or overrule each of the exceptions or modify or amend the proposed assessment to which such exception or objection was filed. The court will then either reject or accept the report of the commissioners and ratify it with or without modifications or amendments in regard to the proposed assessments. (d) If the court shall accept and ratify the report of the commissioners, either with or without modifications, the court will then by decree proceed to make or levy an assessment for the amount determined upon the respective tracts of land to be benefited by the project in proportion to such benefits; provided, that in watershed districts of a size of two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) acres, or larger, no tract of land shall be assessed for such benefits in an amount in excess of twenty-five percent (25%) of its assessed valuation for county taxation.

Legislative History

Acts 1955, ch. 112, § 23; 1959, ch. 53, § 1; T.C.A, § 70-1835; T.C.A. § 69-7-135.