133 Ark. 64 | Ark. | 1918
A special statute creating three separate road districts in St. Francis County was enacted by the General Assembly of 1917. Hach of the districts covers separate territory and was created to improve certain roads. One district covers all of the county west of the St. Francis river, and certain public roads therein are to be improved. Another district covers the territory east of the St. Francis river and north of the line of railroad of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company. Certain public roads are to be improved in that district. The third district covers the territory east of the St. Francis river and south of the line of said railroad. The three districts are entirely separate and distinct, each for the improvement of different roads, which are to be improved at the expense of property owners in the respective districts. An attack is made in this suit on the validity of the statute and the proceedings thereunder so far as relates to the third district.
“Also the public road beginning at a point where the road from Madison through Widener to the Crittenden county line crosses the line between township 5 north, range 4 east, and township 5 north, range 5 east, thence in a northerly direction through sections 25, 24, 13, 12, 1, township 5 north, range 4 east; sections 30, 18, 7, 6, township 5 north, range 5 east and terminating at a point oil the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway at or near the town of Round Pond.” Acts of 1917, Vol. 1, page 819.
All of the sections of land described above lie south of the railroad and are in the district, except section 1, in township 5 north, range 4 east, and section 6 in township 5 north, range 5 east. Those two sections are north of the railroad and are, therefore, within the boundaries of district No.'2. The manifest purpose of the law-makers was to authorize the construction of that portion of the road within the boundaries of the district and that the improvement should terminate at the railroad which forms one of the boundaries. The two sections mentioned above which lie outside of the district were either mentioned by inadvertence or they were described merely as part of the description of the road, and not the extent to which the road was to be improved. It seems clear that no authority was conferred to carry the improvement further north than the railroad.
If the commissioners made an erroneous assessment, or even an arbitrary one, that would not defeat the organization of the district, but the commissioners should be compelled to make new assessments. However, it is not proved in the present case that the assessments were arbitrary and unreasonable, nor can we say from the face of the assessment that it is not fair and just. The exclusion of lands lying three miles or more distant from one of the roads to be improved, or rather the finding that such lands would not derive any substantial benefits from the improvement, can not be said to be obviously erroneous.
Neither the validity of the statute, nor the proceedings thereunder, is attacked in any other respect.
Decree affirmed.