83 Neb. 784 | Neb. | 1909
Action in quo warranto to dissolve the Salt Greek Valley Drainage District and oust respondents from acting as directors thereof. A general demurrer to the petition was sustained, and, relator electing to stand upon his pleading, the action was dismissed. Relator appeals. The drainage district, if organized, was created under the act of March 27, 1907 (Ann. St. 1907, sec. 5598 et scq.). The terms of the statute are referred to and thoroughly discussed in State v. Hanson, 80 Neb. 724, and reference is made thereto for an understanding of the act.
I. It is argued that the statute is void in so far as it assumes to authorize the creation of a drainage district within two or more counties; that the proceedings in the case at bar were instituted and carried on in Saunders county, where the greater part of said district is situate, and that, as relator’s land is in Cass county, they are void as to his real estate. We have not been cited any
2. Relator alleges that his land is within the limits of another proposed drainage district, and that the law does not authorize or contemplate the overlapping of those districts so that real estate may be subject to separate assessments in as many distinct districts. The statute does not refer in specific terms to the overlapping of districts, nor does it forbid their formation. While some complications may arise in the prosecution of public improvements on land within two or more districts and in assessments to pay therefor, yet we are of opinion that the objection made is not a serious one. Relator’s land can only be assessed for, and to the extent of, benefits actually bestowed by virtue of the improvements made by any particular district. The assessments can only be laid after notice, and, if the levy is not supported by the facts, the landowner has an ample remedy, by appeal to the courts
3. The application for the formation of said district was filed September 25, and five days later an order was made by the commissioners of Saunders county fixing the boundaries of said district. An election was called for October 26, and notices were duly published in a newspaper in Oass and one in Saunders county. This notice, as the statute required, described the boundaries of the proposed district as fixed by the county commissioners. On the 23d of October certain persons, owning about 1,000 acres of land within the proposed district, appeared and made a showing that their lands were already within a drainage district created for the purpose of reclaiming lands adjacent to Wahoo and Olear creeks, and that neither equity, justice nor the public welfare warranted including said lands within the boundaries of respondent district, and thereupon, without notice, said commissioners entered an order modifying their first one and excluding the aforesaid land from respondent district. Notice was not given of the making of the second order except to the seventeen parties who had petitioned for the creation of respondent district. October 26, the day fixed in the published notice, an election was held, and a majority of the votes cast favored the creation of a drainage district,
The vital proposition in this case is whether, under the circumstances, notice not having been given of the change in the boundaries of the proposed district, the election was void. In State v. Hanson, 80 Neb. 724, we held-that an election under said act was not an election within the
We are of opinion that landowners have a right to rely upon the district being formed, if created at all, in conformity with said notice, and, if the commissioners change those boundaries so that the notice does not truly describe them, any landowner who did not have knowledge of the change or participate in that election may, by, timely appeal to the courts, successfully challenge the legal existence of said district. City of Atlanta v. Gabbett, 93 Ga. 266; Payson v. People, 175 Ill. 267.
The judgment of the district court therefore is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Reversed.