Myles Salt Company v. Board of Commissioners of the Iberia St Mary Drainage District

• Decision Date: 10 January 1916
• Docket Number: No. 141,141
• Citation: 239 U.S. 478,36 S.Ct. 204,60 L.Ed. 392
• Parties: MYLES SALT COMPANY, Limited, Plff. in Err., v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE IBERIA & ST. MARY DRAINAGE DISTRICT and George Henderson, Sheriff and Ex-officio Tax Collector of the Parish of Iberia
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

239 U.S. 478

36 S.Ct. 204

60 L.Ed. 392

MYLES SALT COMPANY, Limited, Plff. in Err.,

v BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE IBERIA & ST. MARY DRAINAGE DISTRICT and George Henderson, Sheriff and Ex-officio Tax Collector of the Parish of Iberia.

No. 141.

Argued December 16, 1915.

Decided January 10, 1916.

Mr. Edgar H. Farrar for plaintiff in error.

Mr. L. Tasker Dulany for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

Suit to restrain the sale of plaintiff in error's land about to be made, it is alleged, by defendants in error, to collect a tax of 5 mills for four years, aggregating the sum of $2,000 and penalties. (We shall refer to the parties as plaintiff and defendants, respectively, that being their relation in the state courts.)

There is no dispute about the state laws. It is stated in plaintiff's brief that it is a matter of ordinary geographic knowledge that large portions of the flat lands in Louisiana adjacent to the Gulf coast are subject to fluvial or tidal overflow and must be leveed and drained by systems of general and special public levees and drains. To this end legislation has been enacted, beginning in 1888 and receiving constitutional sanction in 1898 (art. 281). By an act passed in 1900 (Acts of 1900, p. 12) previous statutes were consolidated and it was provided that when the drainage of any locality was such that, in the opinion of the police juries of the respective parishes, it should become necessary to organize or create a drainage district composed partly of land situated in adjoining parishes, then such drainage district should be created by joint action of the police juries of the respective parishes.

The districts were authorized to issue bonds for drainage purposes and levy a 5-mill tax on all property subject to taxation situated in them. The statute was amended in details and re-enacted in 1902 and 1910 (Acts of 1902, p. 293; Acts of 1910, p. 542).

Acting under these statutes the police juries of the adjoining parishes of Iberia and St. Mary organized the drainage district with which the case at bar is concerned, and the organization of which is attacked.

The ground of the attack is that the district for the construction and maintenance of which the tax was levied was of no benefit to plaintiff's land and was formed only for the benefit of the other lands, was an unconstitutional usurpation of authority, and was and is an effort to take plaintiff's property without due process of law, in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

The case was heard upon the petition in the case and an exception by defendants of no cause of action. The court dissolved the injunction that had been theretofore granted and dismissed the suit with an award of costs and attorneys' fees. Judgment was entered accordingly and sustained by the supreme court of the state.

The trial court held that the gist of plaintiff's demand was to the effect that no benefit was or would be derived by its property by the general drainage system and the levy and collection of the tax on its property. The court said the question presented by the demand was no longer an open one. The principle laid down by the courts, it was declared, is that the creation and determination of drainage districts being a legitimate and lawful exercise of discretionary powers, the courts are without power to impugn or inquire into motives 'where no fraud is pleaded.' The supreme court affirmed the action of the district court and the principle upon which it was based, saying that that court accepted the view as correct 'that the decisions heretofore rendered settle the question forever that the local authorities as to drainage have the absolute right to organize drainage districts and give them shape and boundary lines as they choose.' And it was further said: 'It is upon that theory that the case is before us for decision; . . . without an element of fraud alleged, the court properly dismissed the suit. . . . Here no fraud has been alleged, nor its equivalent.' [134 La. 905, 906, 64 So. 825.] Prior cases were cited.

Is this a correct view of the petition? The principle of law involved in the answer to the question is well known. There is no doubt that the legislature of a state may constitute drainage districts and define their boundaries, or may delegate such authority to local administrative bodies, as, in the present case, to the police juries of the parishes of the state, and that their action cannot be assailed under the 14th Amendment unless it is palpably arbitrary and a plain abuse. Houck v. Little River Drainage Dist. decided November 29, 1915 [239 U. S. 254, 60 L. ed. ——, 36 Sup. Ct. Rep. 58]. Does the district under review come within the principle or its limitation? Was it formed in an arbitrary manner and in plain abuse of power? The answer depends upon the allegations of the petition, which, being excepted to for insufficiency in law, must be taken as true.

We condense them narratively as follows: Weeks is- land, the property which is the subject of the controversy, is one of several islands, being the highest uniform elevation above sea level in southwest Louisiana. It rises abruptly 175 feet or more, is surrounded on two sides by bayous, on the rear by a salt-water marsh, and on the front by a bay (Vermilion bay), with a small strip of salt-water marsh intervening.

Its topography is high and rolling, the drainage excessive, and washing and erosion are serious problems. The country around it outside of the sea marsh is thickly settled and presents the character of low lands as distinguished from high lands or uplands, reaching a maximum elevation of about 15 feet as against a maximum elevation of Weeks island of 175 feet.

In lieu of needing drainage the problem the island is confronted with 'is to guard...