Farelly Lake Levee Dist. v. Hudson

• Decision Date: 15 June 1925
• Docket Number: (No. 54.)
• Citation: 273 S.W. 711
• Parties: FARELLY LAKE LEVEE DIST. v. HUDSON.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

273 S.W. 711

FARELLY LAKE LEVEE DIST. v. HUDSON.

(No. 54.)

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

June 15, 1925.

Appeal from Jefferson Chancery Court; H. R. Lucas, Chancellor.

Suit for injunction by W. C. Hudson against the Farelly Lake Levee District. Decree for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

W. C. Hudson brought this suit in equity against the Farelly Lake levee district, to enjoin it from filing with the chancery clerk of Jefferson county the assessment which the assessors of said levee district had prepared, increasing the assessments of benefits accruing to the lands within the district to $25 per acre.

According to the allegations of the complaint, Farelly Lake levee district is a levee district created by Act No. 3 of the General Assembly of 1913, and amendatory Act No. 170, passed by the Legislature of 1917, and amendatory Act No. 115, passed by the Legislature of 1919. Farelly Lake levee district was created by the act and the amendments thereto for the purpose of reclaiming the lands within the district from overflow and surface water, and for the further purpose of constructing such drainage ditches as the board of commissioners might deem practical. The lands in the district are located in Jefferson and Arkansas counties. The plaintiff, W. C. Hudson, is the owner of land within the boundaries of said levee district in Jefferson county.

Section 6 of Act 170, passed by the Legislature of 1917, to amend the original act passed by the Legislature of 1913, creating and establishing the Farelly Lake levee district, provides that it is ascertained and declared that no land in the district will be benefited more than $20 per acre by reason of the proposed improvement. Acts of 1917, vol. 1. p. 905.

Section 6 of Act 115, passed by the Legislature of 1919, amends section 6 of Act 170 of the Acts of 1917. This section also provides that it is ascertained and declared that no land in the district will be benefited more than $20 per acre by reason of the proposed improvement. Special Acts of 1919, p. 192.

The complaint alleges that the commissioners of the levee district, acting as assessors of benefits, have made a reassessment of benefits to each tract of land lying within the district that will increase the assessments thereof to the sum of $25 per acre. The complaint further alleges that this increase is in violation of the provisions of the act under which the levee district was created and the amendatory acts thereto.

The Farelly Lake levee district filed an answer in which it admitted that a reassessment of the lands in the district had been made, whereby the benefits accruing to each tract of land in the district were increased to the sum of $25 an acre, but deny that said increased assessment is illegal and void. The answer avers that said assessment was increased under authority of Act No. 356 of the Legislature of 1925 entitled, "An act for the relief of local improvement districts created by special acts," approved April 1, 1925.

The answer further states that the levee district, previous to the passage of said act, had made an agreement for construction work under its original plans, that the money realized from a previous bond issue was not sufficient with which to complete the work contracted for, and that, in order to raise sufficient funds, it was necessary to make a reassessment.

The plaintiff filed a demurrer to the answer of the defendant, which was sustained by the court. The defendant refused to plead further, and it was decreed by the court that the defendant Farelly Lake levee district, and the commissioners and assessors of said district, be permanently enjoined and restrained from filing with the chancery clerk of Jefferson county, Ark., the reassessment of benefits made by them.

The defendant has duly prosecuted an appeal to this court.

Rose, Hemingway, Cantrell & Loughborough, of Little Rock, for appellant.

Wooldridge & Wooldridge, of Pine Bluff, for appellee.

HART, J. (after stating the facts as above).

Farelly Lake levee district was created by the Legislature of 1913, and the original act was amended by the Legislature of 1917 and the Legislature of 1919. By section 6 of both amendatory acts it is expressly provided that it is ascertained and declared that no land in the district will be benefited more than $20 per acre by reason of the proposed improvement. Acts of 1917, vol. 1, p. 905, and Special Acts of 1919, p. 192.

The answer admits that a reassessment increasing the benefits to $25 an acre was made; but it avers that the assessment was increased under the authority of Act 356 of the General Assembly of the year 1925, entitled, "An act for the relief of local improvement districts created by special acts."

Section 1 of the act reads as follows:

"Section 1. Where any local improvement district created by a special act has made an agreement or undertaking for any construction work to be done upon its original or any changed plans, such district is hereby empowered to carry out such agreement or undertaking; and to that end it may issue bonds bearing interest at a rate not exceeding six per cent. per annum and may secure the payment of said bonds by the pledge and mortgage of its assessment of benefits and tax...