ORR
v.
ALLEN ET AL.
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Ohio's Conservancy Act of 1913, enacted to prevent floods in the Miami Valley, authorized the creation of drainage and conservation districts with powers of eminent domain and taxation to construct flood-control works. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's rejection of a property owner's challenge to the statute, holding that Ohio's legislature possessed constitutional authority to enact such flood-control measures and that the statute's specific provisions did not violate state or federal constitutional requirements.
© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Memorandum opinion by
The Chief Justice.
The “Conservancy Act of Ohio” is the name given the statute by its first section. Its seventy-nine sections are thus epitomized in the title: “To prevent floods, to protect cities, villages, farms and highways from inundation, and to authorize the organization of drainage and conservation districts.” Ohio Gen. Code, §§ 6828-1 to 6828-79; Laws of Ohio, vol. 104, p. 13. The statute was admittedly designed to prevent the recurrence of the unprecedented and disastrous flood which invaded the Miami Valley in 1913. Briefly, there was provision for drainage districts, for boards to plan, construct and maintain the works contemplated, with the right to exert eminent domain, and to raise money by taxation, by assessments for benefits, and, in some cases, by issue of bonds. Every person affected who was aggrieved was undoubtedly given ample means by . the statute to test judicially his grievance.
A district was organized embracing land along each side of the Miami River which had been flooded in 1913 or which was required for reservoir sites or for furnishing material.
The appellant, a citizen of California owning property within this district, filed his bill to enjoin the enforcement of the statute on the ground that it was repugnant to both the constitution of the State and that of the United States. The court, organized under § 266 of the Judicial Code, in a careful and clear opinion disposed adversely of every proposition upon which the contention was based. The injunction was refused.' This direct appeal was taken.
All the contentions rest upon one or the other or both of .two propositions; (1) That the statute is unconstitutional because of some particular provision relied upon; and (2) because of the inherent want of constitutional authority by Government to exert the powers which the statute gave. The first assumes that the statute has a significance which the Supreme Court of Ohio has expressly decided it has not, and, in addition, that the constitution of the State forbids the exertion of a legis-. lative power which the same court has expressly held the legislature possessed. The-second disregards a line of conclusive decisions of this court which leave nothing open for controversy, or, which is tantamount thereto, separates expressions in opinions of this court from their context in order to give to them a meaning which the opinions do not sanction and which it has been repeatedly declared would be inconsistent with the decided cases.
Thus concluding, we think nothing is required to dis pose of the controversy but to cite the two lines of cases referred to. (1) Snyder v. Deeds, 91 Ohio St. 407; Miami County v. Dayton, 92 Ohio St. 215; County Commissioners v. Gates, 83 Ohio St. 19, 34; State ex rel. Franklin County Conservancy District v. Valentine, 94 Ohio St. 440; (2) Houck v. Little River Drainage District, 239 U. S. 254, 262, and cases cited.
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Jinkins v. Entzminger, 102 Fla. 167 (Fla. 1931)…already seen that a tax for preliminary expenses of a taxing district can be validly laid, even though the district is wholly abandoned. Western Crawford Road Improvement District v. Mo. Pacific R. R. Co., 157 Ark. 204, 248 S. W. 563; Orr v. Allen, 248 U. S. 35, 62 L. Ed. 109, affirming 245 Fed. 486. After such authority has once been given in connection with the power to contract debts, which have been contracted, it cannot be withdrawn by the Legislature to the impairment of the rights of creditors. Furt…
-
Burrows v. Moran, 81 Fla. 662 (Fla. 1921)…tate of Oregon, 212 U. S. 315, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 383; Sanders v. St. Louis & N. O. Anchor Line, 97 Mo. 26, 10 S. W. Rep. 595, 3 L. R. A. 390; Roberts v. Fullerton, 117 Wis. 222, 93 N. W. Rep. 1111; 7 R. C. L. 1066; Nicoulin v. O’Brien, 248 U. S. 113, 39 Sup. Ct. Rep. 23; Nicoulin v. O’Brien, 172 Ky. 473, 189 S. W. Rep. 724; J. S. Keater Lumber Co. v. St. Croix Corp., 72 Wis. 62, 38 N. W. Rep. 529. See also Olin v. Kitzmiller, 268 Fed. Rep. 348. [*666] The Eighteenth Amendment is the supreme law of both the United S…
-
Ex parte Collins, 277 U.S. 565 (U.S. 1928)…481 (see original papers); Cole v. Norborne Land District, 270 U. S. 45 (see original papers); and Missouri Pacific R. R. Co. v. Road Improvement District, 288 Fed. 502. While there was a hearing before three judges in Orr v. Allen, 245 Fed. 486, 248 U. S. 35; Lancaster v. Police Jury, 254 Fed. 179, 180; Columbia Investment Co. v. Long Branch Road District, 281 Fed. 342; St. Louis & Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Nattin, ante, p. 157; and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. Co. v. Risty, 276 U. S. 567, [*569] it…
Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Houck v. Little River Drainage Dist., 239 U.S. 254 (U.S. 1915)