42 Ind. App. 151 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1908
Alfred A. Savery, as county surveyor of Starke county, acting under the act of 1905 (Acts 1905, p.
The only errors assigned relate to the ruling of the court, in sustaining the demurrers to the complaint.
In this ease it is shown that “the question is one of a common or general interest of many persons,” the parties numerous and “impracticable to bring them all before the court.” In such cases our code, which is a reenactment of the equity rule for the joinder of parties, authorizes one or more to sue or defend for the benefit of the whole. §270 Burns 1908, §269 R. S. 1881, 1 Thornton’s Civil Code, §29, note 15, §37. The code further provides that “all persons having an interest in the subject of the action, and in obtaining the relief demanded, shall be joined as plaintiffs,” etc. §263 Burns 1908, §262 R. S. 1881.
In this case the complaint, in addition to other facts, alleges that the assessments against the lands of plaintiffs and the lands of all others for whom plaintiffs sue, lying
The case before us presents but one issue, the enforcement of a common interest, that of relief against an alleged illegal assessment, common to all, injuriously affecting all, and with common relief demanded for all. While the real estate assessed was held in separate rights, there was that community of interest shown between the plaintiffs as would authorize them to unite in one suit, upon the principle at least of thereby avoiding a multiplicity of suits. Heagy v. Black (1883), 90 Ind. 534, 540; Town of Sullivan v. Phillips (1887), 110 Ind. 320; Jones v. Rushville Nat. Bank (1894), 138 Ind. 87, 92; Carmien v. Cornell (1897), 148 Ind. 83, 89; Bosher v. Richmond, etc., Land Co. (1892), 89 Va. 455, 16 S. E. 360, 37 Am. St. 879; Merwin, Eq. and Eq. Pl., §902; Fletcher, Eq. Pl. and Pr., §26. In Jones v. Rushville Nat. Bank, supra, it is said: “It is true, where an illegal tax has been levied, which affects alike the property of a community, or where a public improvement has been illegally ordered, the assessments for which affect .the property of a number of individuals, those affected may unite in an action for the purpose of avoiding such illegal tax or assessment, because they all have a common interest.”
The act of 1905 (Acts 1905, p. 456, §§5622-5635 Burns 1905), under which drainage may be constructed, expressly provides for the assessment of all lands benefited, whether within or without any city or town, as also such city or town, for benefits do public streets or highways thereof, and of corporations, whether public or private, to pay the costs of such improvement. Section 5631, supra, relates solely to the repairs of such drains, and while it contains a general provision to the effect that the county surveyor of the county
Judgment reversed, with instructions to overrule the demurrers to the complaint.
Roby, J., absent.