267 Mo. 139 | Mo. | 1916
This is a proceeding begun August 26, 1913, in the Lincoln Circuit Court, under the Act of March 24, 1913, relating to the organization of drainage districts by the circuit courts. It was instituted by the supervisors of the Elsberry Drainage District for and in behalf of said district for the purpose of extending the boundaries so as to include lands of objectors who are appellants and respondents here, and to amend the “plan of reclamation” which had been adopted by the district. The petition states that it is necessary and desirable to include these additional lands, all of which are in Pike County, because the
The objectors who are here as appellants are owners of lands not included in the original Annada
The Act of March 30, 1911, under which the proceeding for the original Aunada Annex had been instituted and' conducted, provided only for the organization into drainage districts of swamp and overflowed lands, from which class the lands of the objecting respondents were excluded by the order of August 8, 1912. At the next session of the Legislature an amendment was enacted (Laws 1913, p. 233, sec. 2) by which land “subject to -overflow” was added. This act was approved March 24, 1913, and on the same day Mr. Jefferson entered into a written agreement with Harmon, chief engineer of the district on behalf of the supervisors, to the effect that his objections to the assessment were to be withdrawn on condition that the supervisors adopt a plan agreed upon for complete reclamation of the land in the annex by levee against overflow and a system of drainage shown in “plans on file.” It also contained the following paragraph:
“It is further agreed that if any reductions in assessment he made between the supervisors and any parties in the annex, the assessments shall be proportionately reduced on the Jefferson lands in said annex. ’ ’
In pursuance of this stipulation the objections, of Jefferson were dismissed, the present proceeding was instituted to carry it into effect, and Mr. Harmon “found a buyer” for the entire tract, and also for a, Patton tract of some -eleven hundred acres. Using Mr. Harmon’s own language: “Before those sales, were made, an agreement was made in this court, or
The Elsberry Drainage District was organized in the Lincoln Circuit Court on March 13, 1911, and included about twenty-five thousand acres of land, all being in Lincoln County with the exception of a strip a mile or two wide on the north end, which was in Pike County. Its north line ran westerly from a point on the west bank of the Mississippi River corresponding with the center of section 26, township 52, range 2 east, substantially along the present line of Bryant’s Creek to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad near the village of Annada. About two and a half miles north of this, Ramsey Creek, another stream from the bluffs having a drainage area of about sixty square miles, flows east across the railroad into the Mississippi. It is between these streams that the land annexed, and that proposed in this proceeding to be annexed, is situated. The entire tract contains about sixty-five hundred acres and was, to a great extent, made of deposits from the overflow of Guinns Creek, a stream having a drainage area of about forty square miles, which ran all over it in an unstable channel until some twenty or thirty years ago, when it was confined to the south side of a levee built by the King’s Lake Drainage & Levee District from the bluffs easterly across the railroad where it joins the present converted .channel of Bryant’s Creek. The village of Annada as well as the adjacent lands to the north
Mr. Harmon now states in his testimony that the district wants to take in the land of the respondent objectors to get a better, cheaper and safer place to build the levee and ditch necessary to carry out the Jefferson agreement.
His plan of reclamation of the original district contemplated a pumping plant near Apex, ten or twelve miles from its north line, and the new scheme involves a concrete culvert two hundred feet long, by which the water is expected to be transferred from the enclosed annex, under the bed of Bryant’s Creek at a depth not stated, and released into the main ditch of the company on the other side, along which it would flow twelve or thirteen miles to the contemplated pumping .plant, which together with the main ditch was to be enlarged to take care of it. He states that one or more of these pumping plants, under private ownership, was already at work in the annex at the time of the trial.
The court refused in this proceeding to include in the district the lands of the respondents, J. H. and W. F. Patton, Carson E. Jamison and W. A. Richards, which had been excluded in the former proceeding, on the ground that upon the facts the previous judgment was conclusive. Prom this the drainage district has appealed. All the appellants whose lands are annexed to the district by the terms of the judgment appealed from, are appealing on the ground (1) that the court by its publication, which was the only notice attempted to be given the landowners, acquired no jurisdiction to impose upon such lands the burdens consequent to their annexation to the district; and, (2) that the record does not disclose facts sufficient to authorize the annexation of these lands to the drainage district under the terms of the Act of 1913, even
We cannot agree with this proposition in its application to this case. We find nothing in these constitutions which implies that a uniform method of obtaining jurisdiction of the persons of litigants in either general or special proceedings is necessary. The Act of March 24, 1913, under which this proceeding was instituted, prescribed a method by publication which was followed, and the sufficiency of which constitutes the only question in this connection.
It follows that the question before the circuit court in this case was whether, in accordance with the principles we have just stated, the Elsberry Drainage District was entitled, against the will and-protest of the owners, to annex these lands; and we hold that unless there was some common interest between them, by reason of which the improvement of the district would affect beneficially those of the objectors, the right did not exist. We use the word beneficially because we can find nothing in these acts expressive of a legislative intent to provide for the annexation of other swamp or overflowed lands as a substitute for their appropriation by condemnation, and that such an act would be a taking of the land for the purpose of the improvement without compensation being first paid. Section 9 of the Act of 1913 (Laws 1913, p. 237) necessarily calls for this construction. It provides that immediately upon the appointment of the chief engineer
The purpose of the plaintiff corporation seems to have been the reclamation from water of about twenty-five thousand acres of Mississippi River bottom lands lying between the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and the river, and south of, Bryant’s Creek in Pike County. The record is obscure as to the particulars of its incorporation, and its subsequent proceedings, and we resort to the admission of counsel in printed argument, and such fragmentary evidence as bears upon these subjects, for the meager details of which we are able to avail ourselves. One thing, however, -is made plain. The lands of the Elsberry Drainage District were isolated from the lands lying north of it by Bryant’s Creek. It is also plain'that its plan of reclamation involved the straightening of this
Upon the incorporation of the Elsberry Drainage. 'District Jacob A. Harmon of Peoria, Hlinois, was appointed, its chief engineer. He was a civil engineer of twenty-^ive years experience, engaged in drainage work, in which he was an expert, and in addition to his professional employment sometimes found purchasers for lands of the character to which his activities were directed. In that character and during these-proceedings, he found purchasers- for the seventeen hundred afires owned by Mr. Jefferson and eleven hundred acres owned by one or more of the Pattons.. These tracts included the greater part of the land in the annex.
The Elsberry peeple were not discouraged by their failure to obtain all they wanted in the proceeding from which Jamison, Richards and the Pattons, had escaped. By a fortunate coincidence the next. Legislature enacted a new law on the subject (Laws; 1913, p. ,232). The law in force during the previous; proceedings had only provided for the organization into such districts of “swamp or overflowed lands.”' The new act (Laws 1913, p. 233, sec. 2) added the words “or lands subject to overflow,” so that the loophole through which they had escaped was closed.. The Elsberry people quickly took notice of this. The-bill contained an emergency clause (Laws 1913, p. 267, sec. 63) and was approved March 24, 1913. On the same day Mr. J-effqrson entered into a written agree-, ment with Mr. Harmon, representing the supervisors of the Elsberry District, by the terms of which his objec
Mr. Harmon, who seems to have been the moving spirit in the affairs of the Elsberry District and especially in those matters connected with the improvement of the Jefferson lands, as well as its principal witness in this case, states in his testimony that it was agreed with Mr. Jefferson as a part of the settlement of the assessment against his land “that the entire area should be reclaimed; ” “ that that would be a protection, a complete protection and reclamation of the Jefferson lands;” “that in accordance with the plan he had made these surveys for the Elsberry Drainage District to protect that land and that is the reason why it is being done.” We have here an authoritative statement which can mean nothing less than that this proceeding was instituted under an agreement with a single owner to improve his lands upon the plan made by the agent who found a purchaser for them, and for a consideration moving entirely from that owner in the withdrawal of his objections to an assessment made against him. It is also in proof by the same witness, and like his other statements to which we have referred, undisputed, that the “plan of reclamation”
In the plan of reclamation presented by the petition in this case the petitioner for the first time attempts to show how the lands north'Of Bryant’s Creek will be benefited by attaching them to the Elsberry District. It presents a scheme by which the water that accumulates either from local rain or overflow, are to be gathered to the lowest point of the proposed levee on the north side of that stream, and then through a concrete culvert two hundred feet long passing under its bed, then up into the main ditch of the district which is to be enlarged to take care of it, to the proposed pumping station at Apex, which is in turn to be enlarged to raise it over the levee and into the river. This is an interesting plan, but we are not called upon to compare its utility with the more simple one of pumping it into the river from the land upon which it accumulates.
Looking at this proceeding in the light of these principles- we are confronted with the difficulties in finding a reason to support it. Its object is to surround sixty-five hundred acres of land disconnected from that for the improvement of which the petitioner was incorporated, with a levee so high and strong as to render it immune from the effects of a repetition of a. flood which occurred more than fifty-five years ago, and, by the complicated arrangement described in its plan, to turn loose on its land all the surplus water which may accumulate in this- vast enclosure, enlarging its own ditches and pumps to take care of it. We may realize, to some extent, the magnitude of this last work from the profile of its main ditch to be enlarged for that purpose. It shows this ditch to be more than twelve miles long from the pumping station near Apex to the place where it would catch this water as it. emerges- from the ground beneath the bed of the stream and the levee intended to confine it. We have nothing in the record showing the cost of this work of enlargement, but considered as a disinterested act of charity it would be considerable.
We are not unmindful of the fact that before the beginning of this proceeding the larger part of this territory had been annexed to the Elsberry District
That Mr. Harmon had great influence in the affairs of the Elsberry District is shown conclusively in this record. That he was not averse, notwithstanding his official connection with the enterprise, to involving himself in its financial possibilities appears from the fact that during the progress of these proceedin'gs he found purchasers for more than one-half the land included in the original annex, so that it is fair to say that in addition to his official compensation for the work done by him he shared in the first fruits of that enterprise. The largest item of this participation related to the sale of the Jefferson tract which comprised more than one-third of the land annexed in the first proceeding. This •sale was made after the decree for the annexation of the land had been entered and in contemplation of all the resulting benefits and profits.
There is nothing in the record to indicate whether it was Mr. Harm'on or Mr. Jefferson or both of them together, that first conceived the idea of the contract prepared and signed by both, which embodied the final word fixing the favorable terms upon which the Jefferson land was to be admitted to the benefits of the improvement, limiting the amount of the cost that was
Whether under the Act of 1913, a drainage district may extend its limits for the purpose and under the circumstances we have stated is the question be■fore us. The authors of the plan and the petitioner by its evidence frankly admit that the object óf the extension is to carry out the terms of the Harmon-Jefferson agreement that the petitioner will reclaim the lands of the latter, principally at the cost of protesting neighbors, who are shown by the evidence to be amply able to take care of their own.
These corporations are clothed by the State with governmental functions, including taxation and eminent domain, because' the development in productiveness of the lands- of the State and the promotion of the health and comfort of the people are matters of governmental concern, which are to be exercised only for the benefit of the public. The drainage district in these respects are agencies of the State, and it is not necessary to say that they have no more power to levy a tax to aid a purely private enterprise than would the State itself. The very fact that they are clothed with these extraordinary powers imposes upon the courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction, the duty of watchful
For the reasons stated in this paragraph we think the court erred in extending the limits of the plaintiff district to include the lands of the objectors upon the evidence before it. For this reason the judgment will be reversed so far as it includes in the Elsberry Drainage District the lands of the appellant objectors, and affirmed as to the respondent objectors, and the cause is remanded with directions to the circuit court to proceed to final judgment in accordance with the principles stated in this opinion.
, PER CURIAM. — The foregoing opinion of Brown, C., is adopted as the opinion of the court.