Drainage District No. Three v. Riverside Drainage District
Drainage District No. Three v. Riverside Drainage District
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In this action drainage district number three of Sedgwick county asks for a mandatory injunction against the Riverside district of the same county, and its directors in their official capacity; and two landowners are also named as defendánts. A demurrer to plaintiff’s petition was sustained, and from that decision plaintiff appeals.
It was alleged that plaintiff was organized as a district on November 16,1915, under chapter 168 of the Laws of 1911, and that prior to that time the officers of the defendant district had changed the course of Big Slough creek into and through territory which was subsequently incorporated and is now a part of the plaintiff district, by ditches and embankments carrying the water back into the old channel of the creek into defendant district, and that this was unlawful and wrongfully done. It was averred that this diversion of the water had resulted in damage to the plaintiff district, flooding and injuring lands and crops therein, and washing out roads and bridges, for which damage no compensation had been paid. There is a further allegation that in order for plaintiff to establish a comprehensive and effective system of drainage, it is necessary that the nuisance created by the defendant be abated; that the plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law; and that by abatement the plaintiff can protect itself and the general public in the matter of drainage. The demurrer to the petition was rightly sustained. It appears that the defendant was organized under chapter 215 of the Laws of 1905, that it made surveys, established a system, and made improvements long before the creation of the plaintiff district, which it seems has made no surveys nor established a drainage system within its own district. The principal grounds upon which an injunction against defendant is sought, are that defendant has changed the channel of a watercourse, and has done it by digging ditches and by the building of embankments, and that it has gone outside of the boundaries of its district in doing so. The statute under which
Another ground for sustaining the demurrer is.' that the plaintiff was not justified in demanding the relief sought. It is seeking to enjoin the flooding and injuring of property, not of the plaintiff itself, but of the general public, within the district. That which they ask to- have removed is in the nature of a public nuisance. It does not allege that it is the owner of any property that has been injured, and if it be granted that the dikes and ditches made by the defendant are causing a pub-
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Drainage District Number Three of Sedgwick County v. The Riverside Drainage District of Sedgwick County
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- SYLLABUS BY THE COURT. 1. Drainage District — Authority to Change Watercourses — Contracts with Landowners- Outside District. Under the drainage^act, Laws of 1905, chapter 215, it is competent for the directors of a drainage district to change the channels of watercourses and relocate and establish new ones, and to that end they may make contracts with landowners outside of the district, and the judgment and discretion so vested may be exercised by them without interference of control by the courts, unless fraud or bad faith enters into their action. 2. Same — No Implication of Bad Faith. The fact that the directors may have had a wrong conception of their duties or have taken some illegal steps in the performance of their duties, does not necessarily imply bad faith nor that their conduct was so arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable as to indicate an abuse of the power conferred. 3. Same — Flooding Lands — Injury' to Property in New Drainage District —Party Plaintiff in Injunction Suit. An action to enjoin the maintenance of a system of drainage that has been established by an organized district, upon the ground that it results in flooding, injury and loss to the lands of owners ip a newly created district, and to the roads and bridges therein, cannot be maintained at the suit of the new district, but must be brought in the name of the st'ate, at the instance of the attorney-general or the county attorney.