FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 505 



meet again, or for the auditor to appoint appraisers to assess damages, if 

 the supervisors were not then of the opinion that the district was necessary 

 and ought to be established. If claims for damages are filed, and the super- 

 visors determine the drainage district to be necessary, a time is then fixed for 

 the hearing and three appraisers are appointed by the auditor to assess the 

 damages. On the coming in of the report of these appraisers, the super- 

 visors get, in a general way, the amount which it will cost to pay the 

 damages, and, in a general way, they are supposed to have informed them- 

 selves as to the cost of the construction of the improvement, and, then, if in 

 their judgment, the money to be expended in paying damages and in the 

 construction of the work, will be a greater burden than the lands should 

 bear, they should refuse to establish the district. If, however, they think it 

 is not a greater burden than the lands should bear, they, having therefore 

 passed upon the necessity of the drainage district, are required to establish 

 the same. They, then, proceed to pass upon the damages sustained by each 

 claimant, and any person aggrieved by their decision, may appeal, either 

 from the order establishing the district or from the award of damages. 



It is urged by some that where no claims for damages are filed, the super- 

 visors can not, without passing upon the damages of each one over whose 

 land the improvement is constructed, establish the district, for they say, this 

 would be taking private property without compensation and it would be in 

 violation of the Constitution. It has, however, frequently been held that 

 the right to compensation may be waived and that failure to make a claim 

 may properly be treated as a waiver. Cooley says in his work on Constitu- 

 tional Limitations, page 631 and 632, ''If the legislature, in taxing lands 

 benefited by a highway or other public improvement, makes provision for 

 notice by publication or otherwise to each owner of land, and, if hearing 

 may, at some stage of the proceeding, be had upon the questions as to what 

 proportion of the tax he shall pay, his property is not taken without due 

 process of law." He also says on page 815, and he is supported by numer- 

 ous authorities cited in a note appending thereto, that ' 'the right to com- 

 pensation, when property is appropriated by the public, may always be 

 waived. " 



After the district has been established, the board of supervisors proceeds 

 to appoint a competent engineer to estimate the cost of the work, and it lets 

 the contract to the lowest bidder, the preliminary proceedings in respect to 

 which are safe-guarded by requiring the bidders to deposit money as an 

 evidence of their good faith in making the bid, and the successful bidder 

 is then required to give bonds for the faithful performance of the work. 

 After the assessment of the damages and the making of the contract, the 

 board is advised as to what the total cost of the improvement will be, and 

 it is then in a position to assess the benefits. It then appoints three disin- 

 terested commissioners, one of whom is required to be an engineer, to as- 

 sess the benefits. They assess the benefits and make their report and the 

 auditor then gives notice to each owner and occupant of the lands in the 

 district of the fact cf assessment, the amount thereof, the date of the hearing, 

 and thit all objections to such assessments must be made in writing and 

 filed on or before noon of the day set for hearing. Only objections that are 

 made in writing will be heard. This requirement that the objections shall 

 be made in writing is made because it expedites matters and every objection 



