176 Wis. 406 | Wis. | 1922
Does sec. 1286a, Stats., authorize an appeal from an agreement as to damages by' a taxpayer? The relators claim that such appeal lies only from an award of damages and not from an agreement as to damages. Sec. 1286a reads as follows:
“Any resident and taxpayer of a town' in which a highway shall be laid out, altered or discontinued, or if such highway is laid out, altered or discontinued on the town line between two towns, or extending from one town into an adjoining town, under sections 1272 and 1273 of the statutes, then any taxpayer residing in either of said towns which is required by the award of damages made upon so laying out, altering or discontinuing such highway to pay*408 damages therefor, may within forty days after the making of any order awarding such damages, whether made in the first instance by the town board or town boards of said town or. towns, or’made after an appeal or appeals in such proceedings made in sections 1276 and 1281 of the statutes, believing such damages excessive, may appeal to a justice of the peace in the same or in an adjoining town in the county, or to the county judge of the same county for a jury to assess and appraise such damages sustained by any number or all the persons to whom damages were so awarded for lands in the town where he resides. Such application shall be in writing, describing the premises and naming the persons to whom damages were awarded to be paid by such town and the amount awarded to each by the town board or town boards, and shall also specify whether he appeals from the whole of such award or if only from a portion thereof the part from which he appeals. The party shall serve upon two of the 'supervisors of the town where he resides or of a town to which shall have been assigned the duty of paying the damages from the award of which he appeals, at least six days before the time fixed from making such application, a notice in writing specifying therein the name of the judge or justice to whom and the time and place when and where such application will be made.”
Relators argue that since originally only the owner of the land through which the highway was laid out could appeal, sec. 1285, enacted in 1869, and since later bv sec. 1289, enacted in 1876, such right was also^ given to the town supervisors, and finally by sec. 1286a, enacted in 1901, the right was given to taxpayers from an award of damages, it is evident that the right to appeal has been limited, and has been gradually extended. Therefore, since the right to appeal is purely statutory, the court should not extend the language of the statute beyond its express statement, and it is claimed there can be no order awarding damages where there is only a written agreement. It is also pointed out by them that sec. 1286a nowhere in terms gives the. right of appeal from an agreement as to damages but only from an award; that throughout the section speaks
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.