Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1912 — DITCH CASE REVERSED. [ARTICLE]

DITCH CASE REVERSED.

, Remonst rators Win Out In Noted Newton Tp. Drainage Cause. The case of Stockton, et al. vs. et al. was reversed in the supreme court last Friday. This case is known as the Pancoast ditch case, and was appealed by Almira M. StoektoD, Cordelia M. Williams and Eliza Makeever, heirs of the John Makeever estate, and Isaac N. and Jasper -Makeever. The case was heard by Judge Wason of the circuit and decided against the remonstrators. The ditch was petitioned for in September, 1909, by A. C. Pancoast, Sidney B. Holmes, Erhardt Weurthner and Randolph Wright, in the Jasper circuit court, and the remonstrators objected on the grounds that the ditch sought to be established was over the same lines as the Martindale and Halstead ditches, on which they had been assessed; that the Martindale ditch had never been completed according to plans and specifications and that the cause was stilt! pending in the commissioners’ court; that if such ditch was completed according to plans and specifications and the Halstead ditch cleaned out according to law, the drainage would be ample; also that the circuit court had no jurisdiction in the case, because the law is that any prppeedings lor Che enlargement or adding to any ditch already constructed or partly constructed be brought in the court where the original ditch was established. The supreme court took the latter view, holding:

(1) 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 filed verified remonstrances stating as cue o>f the grounds that the ditch way ordered by the board of commissioners and was not yet i fully constructed, the circuit court erred in holding; the remonstrances insufficient and as not stating grounds of defense and sustaining demurrers thereto. (2) Pnder the statute the enlargement, etc., of a ditch must be by the court which ordered it, and though the supreme court will i/upport a presumption in favor of tne jurisdiction of the lower court where the record does not disclose before the lower court’s order that it is a different court from the ohe originally ordering it, yet where the objection is made in time it robs the trial court of jurisdiction to act in the ®a titer. (3) [The objection that the proceeding is in the w r rong court is more than a plea'in bar, it goes tq the jurisdiction of the court* This is quite a victory for the appellants, who put up a whole lot of their good money to take the' appeal, the tfecord and brief alone costing them perhaps over SI,OOO. This brief, which was printed by The Democrat, contained 160 pages and was the largest brief ever gotten out in Jasper county, we believe.

Me&srs. Dunlap and Parkhon, who were appellants’ attorneys, are fe;!ing jubilant ove* the reversal of the case, as is J. W. Stockton, whir as agent for most of the appellants, took the appeal.

Mrs. Rebecca Hemphill Dead. Mrs. Rebecca Grant Hemphill died at 10:30 o'clock a. m., Monday at the home of her son, Dr. F. H. Hemphill, she was a daughter of Thomas Grant and about 60 years ol age. She had been in • poor health for some time before she underwent an operation in May, 1911, and had required the services of a trained nurse. She was born in this county on Dec. 31, 1852, and was united in marriage to Wait Hemphill in 1871. Mr. Hemphill dying about 36 years ago. A son, Dr. F. H. Hemphill, and a daughter, Miss Mattie Hemphill, both of this city, remain to mourn her loss, with three brothers, Abel and Franklin Grant of Rensselaer and Dr. Colfax Grant of Mound City, Mo., also one sister, Mrs. Lavorne Hemphill of Greehsburg, Kan. Funeral services were held this afternoon, Rev. Joseph Williams of Frankfort, having charge at the Church of God. Interment made in Weston cemetery.