Peake v. City of New Orleans
| Decision Date | 19 December 1893 |
| Docket Number | 161. |
| Citation | 60 F. 127 |
| Parties | PEAKE v. CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Charles Louque and Richard De Gray, for appellant.
E. A O'Sullivan and Henry Renshaw, for appellee.
Before PARDEE and McCORMICK, Circuit Judges, and LOCKE, District Judge.
By the act of March 18, 1858, of the state of Louisiana, enacted for the purposes of draining and reclaiming swamp lands in the parishes of Orleans and Jefferson, there were organized three boards of commissioners,--one for each drainage district,--who were invested with all the rights and powers necessary to drain their several districts, by entering upon lands, and erecting engines and machinery, and digging canals and drains, and making embankments and levees; and by making plans and advertisements, and making proof before one of the district courts, they were authorized to levy assessments upon the land so drained. In 1859 a supplementary act authorized the board of commissioners to issue 30-year bonds and use the proceeds for carrying on the work of drainage and provided for their payment; and on March 1, 1861, another act provided for the collection of the assessments for the payment of the interest on such bonds and the principal as they matured. While these acts were in force, and constituted the entire law regarding the drainage of New Orleans and the surrounding country, the president of the board of commissioners for the second drainage district purchased with money collected as drainage taxes and held as drainage funds, a certain lot of land, known as 'Square No. 467,' and erected thereon, at the cost of $57,671.38, paid out of money of such fund, a drainage machine, since known as the 'Dublin Draining Machine,' which has since that time been continuously operated for the drainage of a large part of the property situated in that part of New Orleans. Subsequent to the purchase of this land and the erection of this draining machine, the drainage of New Orleans was provided for by an act of the legislature of February 14, 1871, authorizing and empowering the Mississippi & Mexican Gulf Ship Canal Company to enter upon the construction of such a system of drainage by canals, embankments, levees, pumps, and drainage machines, as was specified in the act, and should be further designated by the board of administrators of the city of New Orleans. This city was also made the successor of the boards of drainage commissioners provided for by the acts of 1858, and it was provided that said boards should transfer to its board of administration all money, assessments, claims of drainage, real estate, books, plans, and other property, that they held as such, and it was further provided:
'That all money or moneys received by the said board of administrators from the said commissioners of the drainage districts, either from the sale of property received from said commissions, from the collection of claims for drainage now due, from the collection of drainage assessments, and from any of the sources of revenue contemplated by the provisions of this section of this act, be placed to the credit of the Mississippi and Mexican Gulf Ship Canal Company, and held as a fund to be applied only to the drainage of New Orleans and Carrollton, in accordance with the provisions of this act; and that all property, not money, so received, shall be held in trust for the payment of said Mississippi and Mexican Gulf Ship Canal Company, and ultimately for the benefit of New Orleans, should the same not be required for the work of drainage.'...
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