Ham v. Board of Levee Commissioners

Citations

• 83 Miss. 534

Syllabus

<p>1. Levees. Power of commissioners. •Relocation of levee. Laws 1884, p. 142, ch. 168, sec. 4.</p> <p>Tbe board of levee commissioners for Tazoo-Mississippi Delta, after having built a levee, may abandon it, or a part of it, and construct another in a different place. The power to do so is granted by Laws 1884, p. 142, ch. 168, sec. 4, authorizing the board to build a levee along the river front, to abandon any portion of the old levee deemed unsafe, to build new levees on such ground as it may select and do all acts necessary to protect the district from overflow.</p> <p>■2. Same. Discretion. Gov/rts will not control.</p> <p>The courts will not, in the absence of fraud and bad faith, undertake to control the action of the levee board touching matters committed to its discretion and judgment on the ground alone that it acted hastily or unwisely.</p> <p>3. Same. Use of bonds'. Laws 1903, p. 137, ch. 83.</p> <p>The hoard may use the proceeds of bonds, issued under Laws 1902, p. 137, ch. 83, for the building of a new levee in place of an old one at any time, the necessity for so doing having been demonstrated by high water.</p> <p>4. Same. Power to obstruct drainage.</p> <p>The levee board béing empowered to construct levees, has the incidental power of obstructing drainage.</p> <p>5. Same. Damages.</p> <p>A land owener is entitled to recover from the levee board damages to his land' resulting from the buliding of a levee so as to obstruct drainage, although the land be outside the levee.</p> <p>6. Constitutional Law. Eminent domain. Constitution 1890, sec. 17.</p> <p>Constitution 1890, § 17, making it a judicial question whether the contemplated use for which property is sought to be condemned by eminent domain proceedings be a public one, does not authorize the courts to determine the necessity for the taking.</p>