DITCH COMPANIES.

tion.

also the owners of all lands or low grounds benefited or to be benefited by the drainage now made or hereafter to be made by cleaning out the said river and the said streams or branches thereof, or the ditches cut or to be cut for the purpose of relieving the low lands bordering upon said river and formed by alluvial deposit near the same, be and they are hereby incorporated Incorporaand made a body politic and corporate in law and in fact, with all the usual and necessary powers of like improvement companies, and subject likewise to the same obligations and duties as such companies are, by the name and style of "The Pokomoke Name. River Improvement Company," and as such shall have succession for the period of twenty years from the passage hereof, except the owners of low grounds lying west of the Pokomoke river run and the upper Pokomoke, beginning at George T. West's Certain upper line, which empties into said river, shall not be embraced owners of within the limits or operations of said company except for the not embrac single purpose of enabling the said company to collect from the the limits of said owners of said land respectively such proportion of the expenses of said company in and about the ditching of said river below according to the report of the commissioners hereinafter mentioned.

low lands

ed within

said comp'y.

Purposes of

SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the object and purpose of the creation of said company is the more thorough said comp'y. draining and reclaiming the low grounds lying upon the said river, and to be rendered more valuable by promoting the more rapid and unobstructed flowage of water down the same by ditches and drains into and down the said river.

ed.

SECTION 3. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose commissionof the more complete relief of the low grounds of the said river ers appointfrom the water which stands upon the same for want of drainage, William P. Jones, Elisha W. Cannon and Joseph Ellis be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, whose duty it shall be, having first been sworn or affirmed before a justice of the peace oath. to perform the duties devolved upon them by this act, to go upon the low grounds aforesaid and lay out upon the same such ditches or drains as they may deem necessary to relieve said To lay out grounds from water and fit them for profitable cultivation by their owners. They shall take to their assistance a surveyor and Employ surchain-carriers, and shall survey the line of the said ditches or drains, chain carand make a plot or plots of the same, showing the courses and distances thereof, and make a general description or delineation of ditches, of the said low lands bordering upon the said contemplated Plots. ditches or drains and to be improved thereby, giving the names of the owners thereof and the estimated quantity of acres held by each; and shall estimate the cost of opening and making the

ditches.

veyor and

riers.

Survey line

Damages to

owners.

DITCH COMPANIES.

Assessment said ditches or drains, and shall make a proper assessment of said cost, to be borne by such owners respectively, having reference to the quality of the land and the benefit per acre to be derived thereby to such owners, and if no benefit will be received by any owner, but an injury, they shall also estimate and determine the extent of such injury and the damage that will accrue to such owner by reason of such injury, which damage shall be deposited in the Farmers' Bank at Georgetown to the credit of such owner, if he will not or cannot receive it before the said company shall occupy his lands and take the same for the improvement to be made by said company: Provided, however, That where any prong has already been laid out and made under commission prior proceedings of any of the said companies consolidated by ers as to pro- this act, and also where any new prong or prongs shall be laid taxes to be out by the said commissioners under the authority given by this

Where de

posited.

Proviso.

Certificate of

portion of

applied to cleansing main ditch

and to making and keeping in

or prongs.

Lists of own

tain.

Where posted.

act, the said commissioners shall determine and certify, as part of their proceedings, what portion of the taxes to be hereafter laid by the said consolidated company shall be applied towards repair prong the cleansing and scouring.out the old or main ditch of the company hereby created, and what in the making and thereafter keeping in repair the said prong or prongs, and such certificate Conclusive. shall be conclusive. The said commissioners shall also make out under their hands, or the hands of a majority of them, five ers of land. lists, containing the names of the owners of the low grounds inWhat to con- cluded in the said company's operations, the quantity of acres owned by each, the valuation of the same and the cost of opening and making the ditches or drains for the improvement of the same, and they shall cause one of those lists to be hung up at each of the five most public places in the neighborhood of the said low grounds, with a notice thereon that they will sit as a board of appeal at Gumboro', in Broad Creek hundred, at ten Where to sit. o'clock, on some day not less than ten days from the day of giving said notice, to hear and determine appeals from said estimate of quantity, valuation, and cost, and they shall sit at that time and place and hear all appeals that may be then made from their action, and determine upon the same, which determinaConclusive. tion, when made, shall be final and conclusive upon all parties. When the said appeals shall have been heard and determined Notice of de- the said commissioners shall give notice of that fact in writing, of appeal, under their hands, or the hands of a majority of them, in like appointed to manner as is provided in this section with reference to the apcommence peal notice, and shall therein name and appoint a day when the operations. said company shall meet to commence operations under this act

Board of

appeal.

When.

For what purpose.

termination

and of day

by the election of their officers and the transaction of the other business thereof. And the said company shall, on that day, hich shall be the day of their first meeting, proceed with and

DITCH COMPANIES.

perform the business provided to be transacted at its annual meetings. The fees of the said commissioners shall be three Commissiondollars each for every day's actual service performed by them under this act.

ers fees.

commissioners to Recorder of Sussex county.

When.

evidence.

land deemed

SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That when the duties on Return of the part of said commissioners under this act have been fully performed, the said commissioners shall make a record or return of their proceedings under their hands, or the hands of a majority of them, containing also the plot hereinbefore provided for, to the Recorder of Sussex county within one month from the time when their labors are completed, which recorder shall record to be rethe same in his office and then deliver the original to the aforesaid corded. company. The said original, and also the said record, or a duly Record to be certified copy thereof, shall be evidence. The recorder shall be Recorder, paid by the said company for his services in recording said return how paid. and plot the usual fees for similar service. When the said return When return is so made and completed and delivered and recorded as afore- made, &c., said, the lands shown thereby shall be deemed and taken to be a to be under part of the territory under the control of the said company's company. operations, and the estimated value of the benefit per acre to be received by the several owners thereof shall be the basis upon upon what which thereafter the taxes to be laid by said company shall be to be asassessed and levied and collected out of said owners, not includ-sessed. ing the cost of opening and making the ditches or drains provided for by the third section, which cost shall be collected when How cost of the expense is incurred, without any action by the said company, ditches to be the determination of the said commissioners being and shall be held to be equivalent to an assessment of taxes by said company; and the treasurer shall collect the said cost and expense through Powers of the same powers as is provided with reference to the taxes laid collect cost. by said company.

control of

basis taxes

opening

paid.

treasurer to

land

connect with

Petition to

SECTION 5. And be it further enacted, That whenever hereafter Owners of the owners of any low grounds bordering upon said river, and wishing to which lands have not had ditches or drains laid out through company's them by the aforesaid commissioners, shall wish to have such works. lands brought within the said company's works and ditched, they may, at their own expense, apply to the judge of the county by judge of a petition for that purpose, and upon such application the said county. judge shall appoint three impartial freeholders of the county, not Appointment owning or being in any wise interested in lands bordering upon said river, who, qualifying themselves, and acting in all respects as provided in the third section hereof, may, if they deem proper, lay out other ditches and drains to form part of said company's ditches. works, and make return thereof in like manner as before provi- Return. ded with reference to the commissioners named in said section,

of freehold

ers.

To lay out

ers.

DITCH COMPANIES.

which doings and proceedings, when performed and completed Effects of as aforesaid, including the recording thereof by the recorder proceedings of freehold aforesaid, shall have the same force and effect as if the services rendered by force of this section had been performed and done under the provisions of the aforesaid third and the fourth sections hereof; and all the provisions of said sections shall apply to the proceedings had under this section, and when done, shall have the same force and effect as if done under said section: Provided however, That all expenses attending any proceedings Expenses, by virtue of this section shall be borne and paid by the parties for whose benefit the same are incurred, and not by said company.

how paid.

The costs of ditches, &c.,

to be esti

no such

ditches, &c., existed.

SECTION 6. And be it further enacted, That when in the course already cut,' of the performance of the duties imposed on the commissioners mated as if appointed by the aforesaid third section hereof, a ditch or drain shall be laid out at a place where any owners have already cut or opened a ditch or drain, the cost of the whole ditch or drain. surveyed and plotted shall be estimated as if no such ditch or drain so cut or opened existed; but the said company shall make an allowance to the owner or owners of such work, and the same to owners for shall be deducted from the taxes payable by him or them until the said allowance is fully exhausted and paid thereby.

Allowance

to be made

work on

same.

Commission

ered to go

land to cut

how defray

ed.

SECTION 7. And be it further enacted, That the said company, ers empow in order the more thoroughly to drain and reclaim the low into Mary grounds within their limits, shall have the power, and it shall be ditches, &c. their duty, with the consent of the owners of the lands lying therein to be entered upon and used, to go into the State of Maryland and enter upon the lands in or along said river as low down as Evans' Crossing, and cut all such ditches and drains in said lands as shall be necessary to promote a thorough flowage of the water down said river free from the obstructions that now Expenses, impede the course of the same, and defray the expense thereof out of the common fund of said company. And further, the first work to be done by said company shall be, if consent as aforesaid be given, upon the said lands in Maryland, and afterwards upon the lands in this State nearest the same, and so always upwards and not downwards, so that there may be free and unobstructed flowage as the works progress, it being the true intent and meaning of this act, and this General Assembly does Where work hereby enact, that the operations of said company shall commence to be com- and be undertaken first in Maryland (if consent be given as aforesaid), and when the boundary line between that State and this has been reached, then in this State at said line, and afterwards continuously upwards until the whole work be completed. And further, when any prong of the main ditch of the company is

of company

menced.

DITCH COMPANIES.

prongs.

reached in such progression of the work of drainage, it shall be lawful to commence work and continue to prosecute the same upon said prong until all necessary labor thereon is completed, Work upon the same order with reference to said work being observed upon a prong as upon the main ditch, that is, the work to commence at the lower end, and progress upwards until completion. And it is also hereby further enacted and provided that if actual operations by way of drainage be not begun under this act within If work not two years from the date hereof, this act shall become inopera- in two years tive and void, and all acts repealed hereby shall be thereupon act to be revived and put in full force and effect.

commenced

void.

how elected,

SECTION 8. And be it further enacted, That the business of said company in cutting and making the new ditches and drains hereinbefore provided for, and in keeping the same well secured and cleaned, and also in the repair and cleansing of the ditches and drains hereby made part of the works of said company by this act of consolidation, shall be transacted by a board of managers, members of said company, to be elected by the owners or Board of members at their annual meetings, the day of holding which Managers, shall be the first Saturday of June in each year, who shall have, When. for the purpose of enabling them fully to perform their duties, all the usual and accustomed powers vested in such officers or neces- Powers. sary to the discharge of their official functions. They shall keep, They shall and exhibit to the said company, or to any member thereof, at all exhibit actimes when required, a faithful account of all their acts and proceed- &c., to comings, and a statement of all the expenses by them incurred, and of pany. the orders given by them on the treasurer of the company in payment of such expenses; and in order to ascertain and fix their number there shall be two of such managers for the main Number of ditch of said company, and one for each of the lateral or cross ditches or prongs, each acting within his sphere independently of the others.

count of acts

managers.

when

elected.

SECTION 9. And be it further enacted, That the said company Treasurer, shall, at each annual meeting, elect one of their members to be he their treasurer, who, before he enters upon the discharge of his duties, shall give bond, with surety to be approved by said com- Bond. pany or a committee of its members appointed at said meeting for that purpose, in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars, with Amount of condition for the performance of all his duties as such treasurer with fidelity. His duties shall be the safe keeping and disburse- Duties. ment, upon the orders of the aforesaid managers, of all orders drawn by them for payment of expenses incurred in and about the business of said company, including their own per diem, which shall be two dollars for every day of actual service rendered by them, the keeping of proper accounts of all receipts

Pay of com

missioners.