Arkansas Land Development Co. v. Bayou DeView Drainage District No. 1
Arkansas Land Development Co. v. Bayou DeView Drainage District No. 1
Opinion of the Court
Appellant owns land affected by the organization of the drainage district designated as Bayou DeView Drainage District No. 1 of Cross, Jackson and Woodruff counties, and instituted this action in the chancery court of Cross county attacking the validity of the organization. The chancery court sustained a demurrer to the complaint and rendered a decree dismissing it when appellant declined to amend.
The first point of the attack is that the engineer appointed to make a preliminary survey and report filed both a report and a map of the territory, and that the report embraced a description of lands not shown on the map so filed by the "engineer. Counsel for appellant rely on the ease of Norton v. Bacon, 113 Ark. 566, where it < was held that a variance between the description of the lands , on the plat or map and that given in the published notice was fatal to the legality of the organization. There is, however, a different statute to be dealt with in the present ease, and it contains no requirement for the filing of a plat or map.
The complaint in the case shows that the order was made upon an amended petition in the proceeding which had been pending in the court for a considerable time, and that the same engineer had previously been appointed by the court. The statute (Act of 1911, supra) contains a provision that “when an engineer has been appointed and has made complete survey and report thereof, and for any reason the improvement has been abandoned and the proceedings dismissed, and afterwards proceedings are instituted for the establishment of a ditch or drain, or the changing of a water course, for the benefit of reclamation of the same territory surveyed in said former proceedings, or a part thereof, and territory additional t thereto, the engineer shall use the engineer’s report, survey, stakes and monuments made in said former proceedings, as far as practicable, or as much thereof as may be applicable.” This is a direct expression of the ‘ legislative will to the effect that the survey of the engineer may be used even though made prior to the order of his appointment. It is therefore unimportant, under the statute, when the survey is made if it is found by the court on the hearing of the matter to be correct and to be available for use in the organization of the district. But aside from any statute on the subject, we are of the opinion that in a collateral attack such an apparent inconsistency in the report would not' defeat the organization of the district found otherwise to be legal in every respect.
The two attacks made in the complaint being found to be insufficient it follows that the chancellor was correct in sustaining the demurrer, and the decree is therefore affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.