Soliah v. Heskin

Background

Six landowners in Mayville and Morgan Townships, North Dakota, sued to stop a drainage board that county commissioners had appointed from ordering a drainage project and charging special assessments to pay for it. State law allowed six or more affected landowners to start the process, let an appointed board examine the plan, require publication of the petition and give owners a chance to be heard, and, if benefits were found to exceed costs, let the board establish the drain and assess benefits. Once those assessments were confirmed, they became final, were placed on the tax list, and a township had to include its share in its next general tax levy.

Reasoning

The key question was whether the federal Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment forbids a State from letting appointed local officers make those decisions and forcing townships to levy taxes to pay assessments. The Court said the Amendment does not prevent a State from deciding which local duties are performed by appointed rather than elected officials. It also said the Amendment does not invalidate a law that lets an appointed drainage board decide which land benefits from a drain and impose special assessments, so long as affected owners receive notice and a chance to be heard before the assessment becomes a lien. The Court therefore affirmed the state court’s judgment allowing the board’s actions.

Real world impact

This decision means appointed drainage boards can order projects and place special benefit assessments on land and townships, and those assessments may be collected through normal township tax levies. Landowners will still have the procedural protection of notice and a hearing, but confirmed assessments become final and enforceable as taxes. The ruling leaves the state’s drainage assessment system intact and enforceable.