168 P. 609 | Or. | 1917
delivered the opinion of the court.
It is contended that the petition designed to inaugurate the proceedings for the organization of the Warmsprings Irrigation District was insufficient for that purpose, by reason whereof the County Court of Malheur County, Oregon, never obtained jurisdiction of the subject matter, and that such being the case an error was committed in dismissing this suit, notwithstanding the statute declares that the order of the County Court determining certain essential particu
“Whenever fifty, or a majority of the holders of title to lands susceptible of irrigation from a common source or combined sources and by the same system or combined systems of works desire to provide for the irrigation of the same, they may propose the organization of an irrigation district under the provisions of this act.”
Section 6168, L. 0. L., as thus amended reads in part:
“For the purpose of organizing an irrigation district as provided by this act a petition signed by the required number of holders of title to the lands within the boundaries of such proposed irrigation district, shall be presented to the County Court of the county in which the land, or the greatest portion thereof, is situated; said petition shall set forth and particularly describe the boundaries of the proposed irrigation district, and shall state that it is the purpose of the petitioners to organize an irrigation district under the provisions of this act, and shall pray that the same be organized hereunder. ’ ’
The petition initiating the proceedings to organize the Warmsprings Irrigation District was filed with the county clerk of Malheur County, March 2, 1916. It was addressed to the County Court of that county and reads in part:
“We, the undersigned citizens of the United States, owners of land within the boundaries as hereinafter*348 described, or who are tona fide claimants to unoccupied land under the laws of the United States, or of the State of Oregon, all being duly qualified electors under the law of the State of Oregon for organizing irrigation districts, being desirous of forming an irrigation district embracing land hereinafter designated within boundaries hereinafter described and set forth, utilizing the waters of the Malheur Biyer for the purposes of irrigation, hereby petition your honorable court as follows: That, under and by virtue of the Irrigation District Law of Oregon, as recited in Chapter 7 of Lord’s Oregon Laws, and as amended by Chapter 223, Laws of Oregon for 1911, and also as amended by Chapters 17 and 197, Laws of Oregon for 1913, and also as amended by Chapter 189, Laws of Oregon for 1915, providing for the organization and management of irrigation districts, your honorable court do proclaim a district as set forth herein, designating the name of said district and dividing said district into .five subdistricts and defining the boundaries thereof; that your honorable court proceed with such dispatch as may be under said law to call an election for the purposes above set forth and do all things necessary under said law for the formation of said district, designating the time and places for voting at said election, and that the boundaries and description of land under said district shall be as follows, to wit”
—giving the courses and distances of the proposed district from and to the beginning point. There was excepted from the described area, however, the land included within the boundaries of the municipality of Vale, as recorded in the office of the County Clerk of Malheur County, together with other specified lands. The names of 82 persons were subscribed to the petition. There was also filed on March 2, 1916, a bond in the sum of $500, in which Malheur County was designated as the obligee and it was conditioned that if the 14 obligors whose names were subscribed thereto should well and truly pay all costs that might be in
“In the matter of organizing an irrigation district: The County Court of Malheur County having set April 15, A. D. 1916, for the purpose of hearing argument, suggestion, protest, and petitions regarding the organization of an irrigation district utilizing the waters of the Malheur Eiver, after listening to a large number of owners and bona fide claimants of government land, whose acreage can be watered from said proposed system and which is within the boundaries of said pro*350 posed district, having carefully investigated and considered and having ascertained that in accordance with the laws of Oregon made and provided for the organization of irrigation districts. The petition presented on April 5 contained the requisite number of signers owning land under said proposed district, and that said land can be irrigated by said water; that said petition had been published for four consecutive weeks prior to such presentment; that said petition upon presentment was accompanied with a satisfactory bond for five hundred dollars, indemnifying Malheur County against loss in conducting said election. Now, therefore, the County Court of Malheur County, proclaims, ordains, and orders: The name of the proposed irrigation district shall be, ‘The Warmsprings Irrigation District. ’ Said district shall be divided into five subdivisions as follows”- — giving the boundaries of each.
It was further ordered that an election should be held in the entire territory described May 27, 1916, to determine whether or not the district should be organized, at which election one director should be chosen in each of the five subdivisions and a treasurer for the district at large. The county clerk was ordered to prepare ballots and to secure stationery for such election, notice of which and of the boundaries so specified should be published in the “Malheur Enterprise” for four consecutive weeks, being in the issues of that newspaper beginning April 22, 1916, and ending with the publication of May 20th following. Judges and clerks of the election were appointed for each subdivision and duly notified of their selection. The county clerk caused to be posted in the several subdivisions of the district notices of the election, having written thereon the number of the subdivision for which each was designed and the'polling place therein. Notice of the election was also published for the time demanded in the newspaper designated and proof thereof
Tbe election was held in tbe several subdivisions at tbe time appointed, and tbe returns thereof having been made and duly canvassed it was found that each person so nominated bad been elected, and that tbe total vote in tbe district was 84 in favor of organization and 11 against it. Based upon such report and the investigation thereof tbe County Court on May 29, 1916, by an order duly made, declared that tbe persons so nominated were severally elected and proclaimed
The election was held in the several subdivisions at the time appointed, and, as appears by a canvass made by the board August 21, 1916, a total vote of 86 was cast in favor of issuing bonds and 23 against the proposition. Within 30 days from the time such election was held the board of directors of the Warm-springs Irrigation District, invoking the benefits afforded by Section 6213, of subdivision 29, L. O. L., as amended by Chapter 223, Laws Or. 1911, commenced a special proceeding in the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for Malheur County, for the purpose of obtaining a judicial examination and determination as to the regularity and legality of the proceedings of such board, providing for, and authorizing the issue and sale of the bonds of such district as voted by the electors thereof. That court on September 13, 1916, by an order duly made and entered, directed that such proceedings should be heard at the courthouse at Vale, on October 24th of that year, at 9 o’clock A. M., or as soon thereafter as counsel could be heard, and commanded that notice thereof should be given by publication in the “Malheur Enterprise,”
Section 6167, L. O. L., as amended by Chapter 189, Gen. Laws Or. 1915, provides that a petition to organize an irrigation district must be signed by a requisite number of
“the holders of title to lands susceptible of irrigation from a common source.”
It will also be kept in mind that the petition filed with the county clerk of Malheur County March 2, 1916, stated that the subscribers thereto were
“owners of land within the boundaries as hereinafter described, or who are bona fide claimants to unoccupied land under the laws of the United States or of the State of Oregon.”
It is argued by plaintiff’s counsel that the failure to state in the petition that the persons signing it “were holders of title to lands,” etc., within the proposed district, rendered such application insufficient to confer jurisdiction of the subject matter upon the County Court, and that its assumption of power to hear and determine the cause was unwarranted, and its order
Jurisdiction of a County Court over the subject matter of the organization of an irrigation district was conferred by an act of the legislative assembly, approved February 20, 1895, Laws Or. 1895, p. 13. That enactment proclaims the manner of invoking an exercise of such power to hear and determine the proceedings to be by a petition signed by fifty, or a majority of the holders of title to lands within the boundaries of the proposed district, which premises are susceptible to irrigation from a common source: Sections 6167, 6168, L. O. L., as amended by Chap. 189, Gen. Laws Or. 1915. That part of Section 6168, L. O. L., prescribing the qualifications of persons who are entitled to vote at an election called to determine whether or not a proposed irrigation district shall be organized, reads:
“Any person, male, or female, of the age of twenty-one years or over, whether a resident of the district or not, who is a bona fide owner of land situated in the district, as shown by the last assessment-roll shall be entitled to vote at any election held under the provisions of this act; provided, that a bona fide claimant to an uncompleted title under the public land laws of the United States or of the State of Oregon shall be construed to be a bona fide owner of lands within the meaning of this act; provided, further, that the vote of any corporation holding title to°land within the district may be cast by said corporation as a single land owner through any officer or agent of said corporation authorized by resolution by its board of directors.”
It will thus be seen that qualified petitioners must be the holders of title to lands, while voters at an elec
‘ ‘ On the final hearing the court shall make and enter an order determining whether the requisite number of*358 owners of the land within snch proposed district shall have petitioned for the formation thereof.”
It will thus be observed that the legislative assembly used the term “owners of land” in another provision of the statute, which was enacted at the same time and as a part thereof, as synonymous with the phrase, “the holders of title to lands.” These phrases having been thus employed, it is unnecessary to refer to decisions of courts of last resort construing them in the same manner. The petition, therefore, stated facts sufficient to invoke an exercise of the jurisdiction of the County Court.
“being desirous of forming an irrigation district embracing land hereinafter designated within boundaries hereinafter described and set forth, utilizing the waters of the Malheur River for the purposes of irrigation, hereby petition, ’ ’ etc.
By reasonable intendment it is apparent that the lands referred to were susceptible of irrigation from
It follows from these considerations that the decree rendered herein is affirmed. Affirmed.