Risty v. Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry. Co.

Citation297 F. 710
Decision Date18 March 1924
Docket Number6312-6317.
PartiesRISTY et al. v. CHICAGO, R.I. & P. RY. CO., and five other cases.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

N. B Bartlett and E. O. Jones, both of Sioux Falls, S.D., for appellants.

A. B Fairbank, of Sioux Falls, S.D. (Edward S. Stringer, Thomas D O'Brien, and Alexander E. Horn, all of St. Paul, Minn on the brief), for appellee Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry. Co.

C. O. Bailey, of Sioux Falls, S.D., and E. L. Grantham, of Aberdeen, S.D. (H. H. Field, of Chicago, Ill., and J. H. Voorhees, P. G. Honegger, T. M. Bailey, and C. O. Bailey, Jr., all of Sioux Falls, S.D., on the brief), for appellee Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co.

C. O. Bailey, of Sioux Falls, S.D. (R. L. Kennedy, of St. Paul, Minn., and J. H. Voorhees, P. G. Honegger, T. M. Bailey, and C. O. Bailey, Jr., all of Sioux Falls, S.D., on the brief), for appellee Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co.

Harold E. Judge, of Sioux Falls, S.D. (R. M. Campbell, of Chicago, Ill., on the brief), for appellee Northern States Power Co.

C. O. Bailey, of Sioux Falls, S.D. (Roy B. Marker, of Sioux Falls, S.D., on the brief), for appellee City of Sioux Falls.

Harold E. Judge, of Sioux Falls, S.D., for appellee Great Northern Ry. Co.

In the year 1907 the board of county commissioners of Minnehaha county, S.D., acting under the drainage statutes of that state, established and had constructed a drainage ditch known as drainage ditch No. 1, bottom width of 40 feet, at an expense of $46,600. This ditch was north of Sioux Falls and ran first in a southerly direction from its initial point; thence easterly past the pumping station of the city of Sioux Falls; thence southeasterly about 1,000 feet to the Big Sioux river near the north limits of Sioux Falls. It passed through a ridge and descended approximately 100 feet in the terminal thousand feet. A spillway was constructed to carry the water down the descent. This ditch was approximately three miles in length, and there was a spur 670 feet long extending northwest into a bayou about 2,000 feet south of the initial point.

In 1910 the board of county commissioners established another drainage ditch known as drainage ditch No. 2, which extended north from the northern terminal of drainage ditch No. 1, for a distance of about 12 miles. This ditch likewise had a 40-foot bottom and was constructed at a cost of $81,106.19. These two ditches, making in fact one continuous ditch, drained certain agricultural lands, and traversed the land north of the city of Sioux Falls near the gravel bed from which the city obtained its water supply. It also passed near the state penitentiary lands and emptied into the Big Sioux river north of the falls in said river.

In the year 1916 there was a breaking of the river through the natural barrier into the bayou drained by the lateral branch. This, coupled with the large volume of water passing through these ditches, made it impossible for the spillway to carry the same, and it was washed out and destroyed. The waters therefore being uncontrolled descended from the steep bluff to the level of the Big Sioux river, and serious damage was threatened to various interests. There was danger that the Big Sioux river which flowed through the city of Sioux Falls would be diverted from its course and flow through these ditches cutting off the water supply of the city of Sioux Falls, injuring the Northern States Power Company, and depriving it of its water power.

The board of county commissioners attempted to devise some plan to reconstruct the spillway and to protect these various interests from the threatened damages.

April 8, 1916, certain parties filed a petition with the board of county commissioners asking that that portion of drainage ditch No. 1 containing the old spillway be closed and abandoned, and the course of said ditch extended in a southerly direction through Covell's Lake to the Big Sioux river; and said board did pass a resolution that said drainage ditch No. 1 be permanently closed above the present spillway or outlet thereof.

August 3, 1916, a petition of F. L. Blackman and other parties was filed entitled, 'To Reconstruct and Improve Drainage Ditches Numbers One and Two in Minnehaha County, South Dakota, and to Construct a New Spillway or Outlet to said Drainage Ditches Numbers One and Two and to Pay Therefor by an Assessment upon the Property, Persons and Corporations Benefited Thereby. ' This petition was transmitted by the board to the state engineer, and on August 14, 1916, a survey was ordered.

September 13, 1916, a report of the survey was made and filed by the engineer in charge. A resolution was thereupon adopted by the board fixing the line and width of said new proposed ditch in the exact location of old ditches No. 1 and No. 2, and providing for the time and place of hearing the petition. Notice was published for three successive weeks describing the route of the proposed drainage, and the tract of country likely to be affected thereby, in the general terms provided by the statute; also, the separate tracts of land through which the proposed ditch would pass, and the names of the owners of said tracts. Such notice informed all persons affected by the proposed drainage to appear at such hearing and show cause why the same should not be established. Upon the return date of the notice the commissioners adopted a resolution purporting to establish the so-called drainage ditch No. 1 and 2, and providing for the reconstruction of the spillway.

No appeal was taken from this order establishing the purported new project.

The commissioners then caused ditches No. 1 and No. 2 to be cleaned out, widened, deepened, and diked so as to increase the carrying capacity; caused the spillway to be reconstructed, and certain portions of the Big Sioux river to be straightened. This work cost approximately $255,000, and drainage warrants were issued to be paid out of taxes assessed against the property determined to be benefited within the area of the purported new drainage ditch No. 1 and 2. The largest holders of these warrants are interveners in this action.

In April, 1919, notice was published of a hearing upon the matter of equalizing benefits resulting from said drainage ditch No. 1 and 2, and this was the first intimation that certain of appellees had that benefits might be assessed against them. The property of some of the appellees was not covered by the notice. However, the proceedings under this notice were abandoned.

June 10, 1921, appellant board by resolution fixed a proportion of benefits in units, which had been decided upon as a fair method of arriving at the same, on drainage ditch No. 1 and 2, and designated Monday August 1, 1921, at the office of the county auditor, as the time and place for a hearing on the question of equalizing benefits, and caused notice of such hearing to be published as provided by the statute. Under the unit system adopted by the board upon recommendation of their engineer, the various appellees had units allotted against them as follows:

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, out of a total of 32,549.62 units, 839.45.

Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, 1,681.

Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Company, 839.45.

Northern States Power Company, 5,351.63.

Great Northern Railway, 613.85.

City of Sioux Falls, 3,147.95.

The amount due on warrants issued for this work at the time the actions were brought was about $300,000. The total units of benefit aggregate 32,549.62, so each unit of benefit amounts to slightly in excess of $9. If no changes had been made by the board, had they been permitted to proceed, the amounts charged against various appellees would have ranged from $50,000 against the Northern States Power Company to substantially $6,000 against the Great Northern Railway Company.

Appellees brought suit to restrain appellants from proceeding further with the equalization of said purported benefits and from levying any assessment upon their property to pay therefor. Some of the appellees had no property in original ditch district No. 1 and No. 2; others of appellees did have, and some difference is made in the contention of those not having property in the original ditch district and those who did have, but the issues in the main were the same as to all the parties.

All of the appellees contended in the trial court that the South Dakota drainage law was unconstitutional, violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; that it also violated sections 2 and 3 of article 6 of the Constitution of the State of South Dakota. Some of the appellees contended that the board exceeded its powers in what it attempted to do, in that the same was not for the drainage of agricultural lands, but being for other public purposes, could only be carried on by the corporate authority of drainage district entities established for that purpose, which had not been done, and that consequently the proceedings were void.

Others of the appellees contended that the proceeding seeking to establish drainage ditch No. 1 and 2 was a subterfuge to impose liability on new territory to pay for the maintenance of the former ditches, and that the proceedings were for maintenance and repair of the old drainage ditch and were not carried on as provided by section 8470 of the Code of South Dakota relating to assessments for the maintenance of drainage already established; that drainage ditch No. 1 and 2 was not a new ditch and not a new enterprise.

Further claim is made by the railroad appellees that the South Dakota drainage law is unconstitutional so far as respects assessments of railroad property, in that it provides for the giving of no notice whatever of the...

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    ...court of equity must be a remedy on the law side of the federal court, and not a remedy in the state courts." Risty v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. (C. C. A.) 297 F. 710. "Where, if an assessment against a railway company by a state tax commission was allowed to be certified down to and exte......
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    ...must be as certain, prompt, and effective to attain the ends of justice as would be afforded by equity (Risty et al. v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. C. C. A. 297 F. 710; Investors' Guaranty Corp. v. Luikart C. C. A. 5 F.2d 793; McConihay v. Wright, 121 U. S. 201, 7 S. Ct. 940, 30 L. Ed. 932;......
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