Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/229/187/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:27:08+00:00

Document:
A statutory provision for charging cost of construction of an improvement against property benefited may include the cost of maintenance as well as of actual construction, and in determining the scope of the provision, the court may arrive at the legislative intent by examining the history of the statute.
The history of the Reclamation Act of 1902 shows that it was the intent of Congress that the cost of each irrigation project should be assessed against the property benefited and that the assessments as fast as collected should be paid back into the fund for use in subsequent projects without diminution. This intent cannot be carried out without charging the expense of maintenance during the government-held period as well as the cost of construction.
Subsequent legislative construction of a prior act may properly be examined as an aid to its interpretation, and so held that statutes passed since the Reclamation Act of 1902 indicate that Congress has construed the provisions of that act as authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to assess cost of maintenance as well as of construction of irrigation projects upon the land benefited.
Where the executive officer charged with its enforcement annually reports to Congress the same construction of a statute, it is significant if Congress never has taken any adverse action in regard to such construction.
Quaere whether Congress may not, by legislation, construe a prior statute so that, as to all matters subsequently arising, the action is legislative in character.
The repeated and practical construction of the Reclamation Act of 1902 by both Congress and the Secretary of the Interior, in charging cost of maintenance as well as construction, accords with the provisions of the act taken in its entirety, and is followed by this Court.
required thereunder to pay the annual charges for maintaining the irrigation project by which his lands are irrigated, are stated in the opinion.
two parts: 1. Building of the irrigation system, $52 per acre . . . 2. For operation and maintenance, 95 cents per acre per annum." The appellee, Baker, applied for a water right and paid the assessed charges until 1911, when he refused to pay the 95 cents per acre for maintenance and operation on the ground that the Secretary had no authority to make such an assessment. The reclamation officers thereupon threatened to cut off the supply of water, and Baker at once filed, in the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Washington, a bill against them alleging that the charge for maintenance was illegal, that his crops would be destroyed if water was not furnished, and praying that the reclamation officers should be perpetually enjoined from cutting off the supply of water because of his failure to pay the illegal assessment.
The defendants in their answer set up that the charge of 95 cents per acre, per annum, for maintenance and operation had been lawfully made by the Secretary of the Interior under the power conferred upon him by statute. The case was heard on bill and answer, and the bill dismissed. 196 F. 569. Baker took the case to the circuit court of appeals, where, one judge dissenting, the decree was reversed (199 F. 865) on the ground that the Secretary of the Interior could not assess irrigable land with the cost of maintenance and operation.
operating charges at one place, by so much is the reclamation of arid lands elsewhere postponed.
The statute provides that the cost of construction of the project shall be charged against the land within the irrigable limits. The phrase is not expressly defined, and being general in its terms, is not necessarily limited to building, but may include the preservation and maintenance of what has been built. For example, a statute authorizing the levy of a tax to construct a sewer was held to empower the city to levy taxes for its maintenance. Power to construct a dock imposed the duty of operating it. Permission to "construct internal improvements" warranted the purchase of a plant already built, and authority to construct a road conferred power to maintain it. In re Fowler, 53 N.Y. 60; Seymour v. Tacoma, 6 Wash. 138; Attorney General v. Boston, 142 Mass. 2002; Pelham v. Woolsey, 16 F. 418; Atchison &c. Ry. v. McConnell, 25 Kan. 372; Bell v. Maish, 137 Ind. 226; Weston v. Hancock County, 98 Miss. 800. So, in the present case, the statute provides that the Secretary may assess "the cost of construction of the project" without defining the term, and it may assist in arriving at the legislative intent to refer briefly to the facts leading up to the passage of the Reclamation Act.
that the proceeds arising from the sale of all public lands in these sixteen states and territories should constitute a trust fund to be set aside for use in the construction of irrigation works, the cost of each project to be assessed against the land irrigated, and as fast as the money was paid by the owners back into the trust, it was again to be used for the construction of other works. Thus, the fund, without diminution except for small and negligible sums not properly chargeable to any particular project, would be continually invested and reinvested in the reclamation of arid land. See H.R. Report No. 1468, 57th Congress, 1st session.
"An Act Appropriating the Receipts from the Sale and Disposal of Public Lands in Certain states and Territories to the Construction of Irrigation Works for the Reclamation of Arid Lands. [Footnote 1]"
32 Stat. 388, c. 1093.
provisions of this Act; provided that, when the payments required by this act are made for the major portion of the lands irrigated from the waters of any of the works herein provided for, then the management and operation of such irrigation works shall pass to the owners of the lands irrigated thereby, to be maintained at their expense; . . . Provided that the title to and management and operation of the reservoirs and works necessary for their protection and operation shall remain in the government until otherwise provided by Congress."
that § 4 authorizes the Secretary to make the estimated charges "with a view of repaying the cost of construction of the project." But an analysis of the act shows that the charges were not limited to the building of the dam or the digging of the canals, but included the purchase of land needed for reservoirs and everything chargeable to "the cost of construction of the project," which project was later to be turned over as a going concern to the landowners. The cost to the United States represented not only the expense of building, but of maintenance up to the time it was surrendered to the water users. And as the government collected no interest, the result would be that, if the cost of maintenance was not returned, there would be a constant and heavy diminution of the Reclamation Fund. That fund was the proceeds of public land, and was not intended to be diminished for the benefit of any one project, but, without increase by interest, and undiminished by local expenses, was again to be used for constructing other works. The cost of surveying those projects which were not developed and the administrative expenses not chargeable to any particular project might not be repaid, but these sums were so small as to be negligible as against the fundamental idea of the bill, that the proceeds of public land as a trust fund should be kept intact, and again invested and reinvested for constructing new irrigation works. But if it should be taxed with cost of maintenance, it follows as a mere matter of mathematics that the Reclamation Fund would be greatly depleted, if not entirely consumed, and the proceeds of the public domain be thus diverted to the payment of local expenses.
"in addition to the charges for construction and maintenance of the irrigation system made payable into the Reclamation Fund by the provisions of the Reclamation Act."
"deemed practicable . . . [for an irrigation project under the provisions of the Reclamation Act], said lands shall be . . . disposed of under the provisions of said act, and settlers shall pay, in addition to the cost of construction and maintenance provided therein, the appraised value"
of the Indian land. (March 1, 1907, 34 Stat. 1037, c. 2285.) See also 35 Stat. 85, 558, 562, chaps. 153, 237; 36 Stat. 835, c. 407.
and incorporated these provisions into the original act. We refer to them, however, as we do to the notices given and charges made by the Secretary of the Interior, as showing the repeated and practical construction which has been given the statute from the beginning, and in the light of which many water rights have been granted and many hundred of thousands of dollars for maintenance paid to the government as a part of "the cost of construction of the project." This practical interpretation by Congress and the Secretary of the Interior accords with the provisions of the act, taken in its entirety.
The decree of the circuit court of appeals is reversed, that of the district court is affirmed, and the case remanded to the district court.
"reserved, set aside, and appropriated as a special fund in the Treasury, to be known as the 'Reclamation fund,' to be used in the examination and survey for and the construction and maintenance of irrigation works for the storage, diversion, and development of waters for the reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands in the said states and territories, and for the payment of all other expenditures provided for in this Act."
"Sec. 5. The entryman upon lands to be irrigated by such works shall, in addition to compliance with the homestead laws, reclaim at least one half of the total irrigable area of his entry for agricultural purposes, and before receiving patent for the lands covered by his entry shall pay to the government the charges apportioned against such tract, as provided in section four. . . . The annual installments shall be paid to the receiver of the local land office of the district in which the land is situated, and a failure to make any two payments when due shall render the entry subject to cancellation, with the forfeiture of all rights under this Act, as well as of any moneys already paid thereon. All moneys received from the above sources shall be paid into the reclamation fund. . . ."
"Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to use the reclamation fund for the operation and maintenance of all reservoirs and irrigation works constructed under the provisions of this act: Provided, That when the payments required by this act are made for the major portions of the lands irrigated from the waters of any of the works herein provided for, then the management and operation of such irrigation works shall pass to the owners of the land irrigated thereby, to be maintained at their expense under such form of organization and under such rules and regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, That the title to and the management and operation of the reservoirs and the works necessary for their protection and operation shall remain in the government until otherwise provided by Congress."
"Sec. 10. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to perform any and all acts, and to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this act into full force and effect."
"will be furnished from the Sunnyside Project under the provisions of the Reclamation Act . . . and the charges which shall be made per acre of irrigable land which can be irrigated by the waters from said irrigation project are in two parts, as follows:"
"1. The building of the irrigation system, $52 per acre of irrigable land, payable in not more than 10 annual installments. . . ."
"2. For operation and maintenance, which will as soon as the data are available be fixed in proportion to the amount of water used, with the minimum charge per acre of irrigable land whether water is used or not. The operation and maintenance charge for the irrigation season of 1909, and until further notice, will be 95 cents per acre of irrigable land, for which water is ready in the irrigation season of 1909, whether water is used thereon or not."

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