Gauen v. Moredock & Ivy Landing Drainage District No. 1

Citations

• 131 Ill. 446
• 23 N.E. 633

Syllabus

<p>1. Drainage daw—necessity of proposed drainage■—may be questioned-On the hearing of a petition for the formation of a drainage district under the Levee act of 1879, as amended by the act of May 19,1881, all parties through or upon whose lands any of the proposed work is to be constructed, or whose lands may be damaged or benefited thereby, are-permitted to appear and contest the necessity or utility of the proposed, work, or any part thereof.</p> <p>2. Same—assessments—limited to property benefited. Under section 31, article 4, of the constitution, assessments by drainage districts are-limited to the property benefited thereby.</p> <p>3. Same—what lands will be benefited■—who to determine—and herein,, of the province of the jury. The statute commits to the judgment and determination of the drainage commissioners, subject to review and. correction by the county court, the question as to what lands in a drainage district will in fact be benefited by the proposed drains and ditches. When that is once settled by the confirmation of the commissioners’ report, the decision, until reversed or set aside, is final and conclusive.</p> <p>4. The jury appointed to assess damages and benefits have nothing-to do with the question whether particular tracts of land included in the district will or will not be benefited by the proposed drainage system. They have no authority of law to find that only a part of a tract-in the district is benefited.</p> <p>5. A jury appointed to assess the damages and benefits to lands iru a drainage- district, reported the balance of the benefits against a tract of 160 acres, at a given sum, and stated in their report that the number of acres benefited was 118|: Held, that the attempt to determine that-only a portion of the tract was in fact benefited was extra-judicial and nugatory, and that the assessment was to be taken as having been made-on the entire tract.</p> <p>6. Same—■what lands to be benefited—subject to contest—when and' where. Every p