Court Opinion

ID: 9864440
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 13:07:35.300593+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:12:14.971257
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, J., dissenting. It seems to me that our only choice is to follow the Berry case or to overrule it. There the special act directed the drainage district to construct a new canal and specified the manner in which the district might annex territory benefited by this new improvement. The district attempted to proceed under its special acts, but the court held that the 1927 statute required the district to follow the general drainage law. That Act was held to deprive special act districts of any powers inconsistent with the general law. So here, the general statute permits the levy of a tax for maintenance of the type contemplated by appellee. It requires, however, that the commissioners give public notice of their intention to apply to the county court for an order levying the tax and permits interested landowners to appear and object. Ark. Stats. (1947), § 21-533. The special act is wholly inconsistent with the general law; it authorizes the commissioners themselves to levy the tax, without notice or court order. The holding in the Berry case therefore demands that the district pursue the general law. The majority draw a distinction between maintenance and new work, bnt this distinction does not seem to be supported either by the statutes or by any reason of public policy. The 1927 statute does not contain a word to indicate that the lawmakers had any such distinction in mind when the Act was drawn. ' As a matter of policy, there is much to be said for the result reached in the Berry case, by which all drainage districts are brought under a uniform system of law. In this particular case, it would certainly be desirable to give the landowners an opportunity to protest additional taxes which they may have to pay annually for the rest of their lives. For these reasons Justice Holt and I are unable to concur in the majority opinion.