102 Kan. 535 | Kan. | 1918
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This proceeding in mandamus was brought by a drainage district to compel township officers, acting as a board of highway commissioners, to construct culverts of certain dimensions and form at three points on highways within the drainage district. The questions involved in this appeal arise upon the ruling of the trial court in sustaining a demurrer to plaintiff’s petition. It was alleged that in The drainage district are three bayous or sections of lowland separated by higher ground; that at times of excessive rains large quantities of water collect in these low places; that the natural drainage in the district is in a southerly direction, toward the Kansas river; and that plaintiff had caused surveys to be made and was proceeding to establish and complete a system of drainage under which the water would pass into the Kansas river through a tile thirty inches in diameter which was then in course of construction. The plans made contemplated that the
It is insisted that to allow the defendants to build the culverts as they were proceeding to do would result in allowing the water to flow through the ditches much faster than it could be carried off through the thirty-inch tile leading to the river and would defeat the plaintiff’s right, as given it by statute, to control the construction and maintenance of its drainage system. Plaintiff is not proposing to.build culverts, nor is it claiming that it has authority over the construction and maintenance of the township highways of which the culverts form a f>art. These powers have been expressly conferred on the township officers. (Gen. Stat. 1915, § 8765.) The powers of the drainage district havé been specified by the ■legislature, but nothing in the act authorizes it to regulate the construction of highways, or to deprive township officers of the .powers conferred upon them respecting highways. (Gen. Stat. 1915, § 3896.) Culverts constitute a part of the highway and are necessary to its construction, and the township officers are not only given, control of the construction, but the township itself is made liable for injuries which result from defective construction. (Gen. Stat. 1915, § 722.) It may be that culverts or openings of the sizes demanded by the drainage district will not be sufficient to properly drain the water from the highways and, at any rate, the determination of that question is vested in the township officers.
The law of course proceeds on the theory that officers in the performance of their several duties in the district will cooperate so far as practicable, so that the exercise of the powers devolved upon one will not obstruct or defeat those conferred on the other, and that all will work together for the general welfare. It must be assumed that the township officers were acting in good faith, and until the legislature gives the drainage district the control of highways in the district, such control must be exercised by the officers upon whom it has been laid.
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.