Case Name: Myers v. Simms
Court: Iowa Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Iowa
Decision Date: 1857
Citations: 4 Iowa 500
Docket Number: 
Parties: Myers v. Simms.
Judges: 
Reporter: Iowa Reports
Volume: 4
Pages: 500–502

Head Matter:
Myers v. Simms.
An order of the county court establishing a road, is not a matter affecting the rights of any person, as distinguished from the public; and no appeal is allowed by law, from such an order.
A writ of certiorari is the proper method of trying the regularity and validity of the proceedings of the county court in establishing a road.
Where the plaintiff and twenty-one other persons petitioned for the establish- ' ment of a road, and' upon the coming in of the report of the commissioners appointed to examine as to its expediency, the defendant and twenty-nine other persons, remonstrated against its being established; and where the defendant claimed compensation for the damages he would sustain, if the road was opened, which were assessed by appraisers, and paid into court, for his use; and where the county court, after hearing the parties, ordered that the road be established and worked as other roads, from which order the defendant appealed; and where the District Court dismissed the appeal, on the ground that the defendant had no such interest in the subject matter of the order of the county court, as authorized him to take the appeal; Held, That the appeal was properly dismissed.
Appeal from the Mahaska District Court
This was an appeal from tbe judgment of tbe District Court, dismissing an appeal from the county court of Mahaska county, establishing a .road in said county. The plaintiff and twenty-one other persons presented the petition for the establishment of the road. On the coming in of the report of the commissioners appointed to examine as to its expediency, the defendant and twenty-nine other persons presented a remonstrance to the county court against its being established. The defendant, Simms, claimed compensation for the damages which he alleged that he would sustain if the road was established. His damages were assessed by appraisers and paid into court for his use. The county court on hearing the parties, and their proofs for and against the road, ordered that it be established, opened and worked as other county roads. From the order, Simms appealed to the District Court, in which court, the petitioners moved to dismiss the appeal, for the reason that the defendants had no such interest in the subject matter of the order of the county court, as authorized them to take the appeal. The District Court sustained the motion, and dismissed the appeal, and the errors assigned by the defendants are upon the judgment of dismissal.
Crookham & Fisher, for the appellant.
Wm. H. & J. A. -Seevers, for the appellee.

Opinion:
Stockton, J.
The appeal in this case was from the order ©f the county court establishing the road, and not from the action of the appraisers fixing the amount of damages to be paid the defendant by reason of the road passing through his land. The questions arising upon the- amount of the-defendant's compensation, are not necessarily involved in the order of the court establishing the road, and an appeal from the latter order, if regular and proper, would not necessarily bring •up the former with it for adjudication.. An appeal is- allowed from all orders and decisions of the county courts, on the merits of any matter affecting the- rights of individuals-as. distinguished from the public, including intermediate orders involving the merits, and necessarily affecting the decree or decision. Code, § 131; If the defendant deemed that the county court, in establishing the road, had exceeded its jurisdiction, or was otherwise acting illegally, and desired to have its action in the premises reviewed in the District Court, a writ of certiorari to the county court, in. the absence of any other plain, speedy and adequate remedy provided by law, would have been the' proper method of trying the regularity and validity of the proceedings. See the opinion of this court in Ball v. Humphreys, June term, 1854. The order of the county court establishing the road upon the petition of plaintiff, was not a matter affecting the rights of the defendant as distinguished from the public, and no appeal was allowed by law from the order.
The order and judgment of the District Court dismissing the appeal is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.