135 Wis. 228 | Wis. | 1908
The drainage district was organized under secs. 1379 — 11 to 1379 — 31, Stats. (1898), prior to the amendment of this law by ch. 419, Laws of 1905. A drainage district organized under that law is declared to be a body corporate with the right to sue and be sued and to have perpetual succession, the commissioners first appointed by the-circuit court and their successors in office to constitute the-corporate authorities of such drainage district and exercise the functions conferred upon them by law and do all things, and perform all acts necessary to the construction and preservation of the proposed work. It is further expressly declared that all proceedings required by these sections prior to- the entry of the opder of confirmation shall be deemed and are declared to be necessary to the formation of said body cor
It must be manifest from these provisions that the corporation defendant is a public corporation of very limited corporate power. As a corporation it is brought into- existence
In Stone v. Little Yellow D. Dist. 118 Wis. 388, 95 N. W. 405, it was decided that the order creating the district is the final determination in a judicial proceeding, and that errors not going to the jurisdiction of the tribunal must be corrected upon appeal from that order. It was also said that the statutes in question were in a very large measure adopted from the statutes of Illinois on the subject of drainage.
It must be manifest from the requirement that the proceeding shall be dismissed in the first instance if the costs, expenses, and damages are more than equal to the benefits that will be bestowed on the land to be benefited, and from other provisions of this drainage act in question, that the whole basis of liability of lands within the drainage district is benefits conferred upon such lands. It was held in Hosmer v. Hunt D. Dist. 135 Ill. 51, 26 N. E. 587, under quite a similar statute, that whether only one or several assessments are made the total assessments cannot exceed the benefits to the land. In Winkelmann v. Moredock Ivy L. D. Dist. 170 Ill. 37, 48 N. E. 715, it was held that the drainage commissioners could not create an indebtedness in advance of the assessments or to pay outstanding obligations of the district or for any other purpose than those specified by statute^ and that the aggregate amount of all assessments, where two or more are made, cannot exceed the benefits. In Lathrop v. Racine, 119 Wis. 461, 97 N. W. 192, it was held that special assessments for a public purpose laid without reference to benefits are invalid and statutes authorizing the same uncon
The complaint in tire case at bar is silent on the question of benefits. How much were the total benefits to the lands included in the drainage district, how much of this amount has been already collected by assessment, or how much expended for damages, expenses, and costs, we do not know. To hold the drainage district now liable for the amount claimed in the complaint might, if the judgment were enforced against the lands in the drainage district, conflict
By the Court. — The order is affirmed.