512 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Section 47 of the drainage act is one of the most important sections in the 

 act. It provides, in substance, that no narrow construction shall be given it 

 by the courts; that if the constitutional rights of the parties have not been 

 infringed upon, and if their substantial rights have been preserved, no mere 

 technicality or irregularity shall defeat the law, but it shall, by the courts, 

 be construed so as to advance the remedy and promote the great object to 

 attain which the law was enacted. The section reads as follows: "The 

 provisions of this act shall be liberally construded to promote the leveling, 

 ditching, draining and reclamation of wet, overflow or (of) agricultural 

 lands; the collection of the assessments shall not be defeated, where the 

 proper notices have been given by reason of any defect in the proceedings 

 occurring prior to the order of the board of supervisors locating and estab- 

 lishing the levee, ditch, drain or change of natural water course provided 

 for in this act, but such order or orders shall be conclusive and final, that 

 all prior proceedings were regular and according to law unless they were ap- 

 pealed from. But if upon appeal the court shall deem it just and proper to 

 release any person or modify his assessment or liability, it shall in no man- 

 ner affect the rights or liability of any person other than the appellant; and 

 the failure to appeal from the order of the board of supervisors of which 

 complaint is made, shall be a waiver of any illegality in the proceedings and 

 the remedies provided for in this act shall exclude all other remedies." 

 Some objection has been made to this section, in that, it is asserted, it makes 

 the order establishing the district conclusive and final, even though the ir- 

 regularities preceding the establishment of the district were such as should 

 defeat the establishment itself. This criticism is not warranted. The act 

 says that "the collection of the assessment shall not be defeated where the 

 proper notices have been given, by reason of any defect in the proceedings, 

 occurring prior to the order of the board of supervisors locating and estab- 

 lishing the levee, ditch, drain or change of natural water course." The 

 notices here referred to include those notices that precede the establishment 

 of the ditch as well as those that immediately precede the assessment for 

 benefits. The notices having been duly served, the board of supervisors 

 has acquired jurisdiction, and the section forbids the party who assails the 

 validity of the assessment and seeks to defeat it by reason of irregularities 

 and defects in the proceedings to go further back than the order establishing 

 the district. The proper notices having been given, the irregularities that 

 precede the order establishing the district are those that pertain to the estab- 

 lishment itself. Once get the district established, such irregularities cease 

 to be material, and, by the order establishing the district, their insufficiency 

 has been adjudicated. The statute, therefore, wisely forbids the attempt to 

 relitigate matters that have been settled. 



I had hoped to say something about the law that relates to two or more 

 counties when acting together and in concert, but, as the subject is a large 

 one and would take much time, I deem in not best now to weary you by at- 

 tempting to say anything further, I thank you for your kind attention. 



