Houseman v. Kent Circuit Judge

• Decision Date: 04 November 1885
• Citation: 58 Mich. 364,25 N.W. 369
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: HOUSEMAN and others v. KENT CIRCUIT JUDGE.

25 N.W. 369

58 Mich. 364

HOUSEMAN and others v. KENT CIRCUIT JUDGE.

Supreme Court of Michigan

November 4, 1885

Maher & Felker, for relator.

M.H Walker, for respondent.

CHAMPLIN J.

The township drain commissioner of the township of Lowell, in 1878, commenced proceedings for the construction of what he designated the "Mud Lake Ditch," and an assessment of $170 as the expense of constructing a part of the ditch apportioned to the lands owned by the relators was placed upon the tax-roll of that township for the year 1880. If the tax was legal, it was a lien upon the land, and the relators filed their bill of complaint against the township drain commissioner and others to quiet their title to the land upon which the assessment was made. They based their right to relief upon the ground of the non-compliance with the law authorizing the levying of a drain tax by the officers of the township, and alleged several jurisdictional defects in the proceedings. The case came on for hearing upon the pleadings and proofs, and on the fourteenth day of September, 1885, the court made and entered a decree therein as follows "This cause having been brought on to be heard upon pleadings and proofs as to the defendant Jeremiah Lusk, and the bill of complaint taken as confessed as to the other defendants, was argued by counsel for complainants and said Jeremiah Lusk, and the same having been duly considered by the court, and it appearing to the court that there was manifest error in said proceedings taken to levy the drain tax assessed upon the south-west quarter of the north-east quarter of section thirty-five, in town six north, range nine west, in the year 1880, it is ordered, adjudged, and decreed and this court, by virtue of the power and authority therein vested, doth order, adjudge, and decree, that the said so-called drain tax, and the proceedings of the township drain commissioner for the township of Lowell, undertaken and had in the year 1878, which are mentioned and set forth in said bill of complaint, be set aside and held for naught, and that the complainant may have leave to show wherein they have been injured by the irregularities and errors in said proceedings complained of in said bill of complaint. And it is further ordered and adjudged that either party to this suit may apply to the court at a future day within ninety days from this date, for the appointment of some person or persons to examine or survey the premises, or examine or survey the same, and the ditch mentioned in said bill of complaint, with a view to ascertaining what, if any portion of the expenses of the construction thereof is a proper charge against said lands of complainant, to the end that on the final hearing of this...