Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1912 — Stockton Won Decision in Supreme Court in Ditch Case. [ARTICLE]

Stockton Won Decision in Supreme Court in Ditch Case.

Jay W. Stockton et al, vs A. C. Pancoast et al, on an appeal taken to the state supreme court, a decision was returned Friday and the plaintiffs were victorious, the judgment of the lower court being reversed. This is the famous Pancoast ditch case, which was tried by Judge Wason, of Delphi, who decided for the petitioners and held the,reraonßtrance by Stocktoh and others insufficient In reversing the decision of the lower court the opinion of the supreme court is thus expressed: Where a ditch was ordered and construction commenced, in the board of commissioners court and thereafter parties filed a petition in the circuit court for enlargement and extension of the ditch and drainage system, but other parties verified remonstrances stating as one of the grounds that the ditch was ordered by tbe board of commissioners and was not yet fully constructed, the circuit court erred in holding the remonstrance insufficient and as not stating grounds of defense and sustainng demurrers thereto. Under the statute the enlargement, etc., of a ditch must be by the court which ordered it, and, though the supreme court will support a presumption in favor of tbe jurisdiction of the lortrer court where the record does not disclose the lower court’s order that it iw a different court from the one originally ordering jit, yet where the objection is made -in time it robs the trial court of jurisdiction to act in the matter.- Tbe objection that the proceeding is in the wrong court is more than a plea in bar, it goes to the jurisdiction of the court