Knights Landing Ridge Drainage District v. Reclamation District No. 730

WASTE, C. J. This court granted a petition for rehearing in the above-entitled cause, one of four consolidated cases (Sac. Nos. 4737, 4738, 4739 and 4740), decided on March 1, 1934. A full discussion of the facts involved in this cause and the situation of the parties is contained in the decision in the other three causes, supra [Hawley v. Reclamation Dist. No. 730, 220 Cal. 271 (30 Pac. [2d] 505)], and need not be here repeated.

[351]Two questions only need be discussed in determining this cause. First, whether or not, under the provisions of section 3456c of the Political Code, the lands and rights of way of the plaintiff, Knights Landing Ridge Drainage District, can be assessed by the defendant, Reclamation District No. 730, within the bounds of which reclamation district the lands of plaintiff are situate.

When the commissioners viewed the lands in Reclamation District No. 730, and spread assessment number 4 according to the benefits accruing from the work of repair, maintenance and raising the height of the river levee, they laid no assessment against the property of the drainage district. Those lands consisted wholly of a strip of land 375 feet on either side of a center line, and constituted the easement and right of way for, and were occupied by, the drainage canal and its banks maintained by the drainage district. The board of supervisors, however, when it re-apportioned the assessment made by the commissioners, ordered that the sum of $5,000 be levied and assessed against the land so occupied. The trial court found that no benefit would accrue to the lands by reason of the expenditure of the money for which the assessment was levied, and also found that the land was dedicated to the public use and purpose, and is so used and occupied for such use, as required by the act of the legislature creating the drainage district. It accordingly annulled the resolution and order of the board of supervisors levying the assessment.

The relevant portion of section 3456c of the Political Code is: “Assessments levied by any reclamation district formed or operating under the provisions of this article (Art. II of Chapter I of Title VIII relating to ‘property of the state’) shall include all lands and rights of way lying within said district and owned by the state of California, or by any city, city and county, county, public corporation, or any utility district formed under the laws of the state of California, except school districts. The assessments upon such lands or rights of way shall be levied in proportion to the benefits that will accrue to such lands or rights of way in the same maimer as assessments are levied upon other lands or rights of way within said district.” The drainage district contends that it does not come within the designation of any body or entity mentioned in the section. Appellants