U.S. Supreme Court

Roberts v. Richland Irrigation District, 289 U.S. 71 (1933)

Roberts v. Richland Irrigation District

No. 516

Argued February 16, 1933

Decided March 27, 1933

289 U.S. 71

Syllabus

1. A State has power to create irrigation districts with authority to lay taxes, distributed in accordance with estimated benefits, on the

Page 289 U. S. 72

lands in the districts, in order to pay the general bonded indebtedness incurred by the districts in the making of the irrigation improvements. P. 289 U. S. 74.

2. An assessment for this purpose, made necessary by the delinquencies of some of the landowners and permitted by the statute governing the district, is not confiscatory and unconstitutional as applied to another of the landowners, even though, when added to prior assessments paid by him, it exceeds the amount in which his land as actually benefited by the improvement. P. 289 U. S. 75.

169 Wash. 156, 13 P.2d 437, affirmed.

Appeal from the affirmance of a judgment dismissing a bill to enjoin the assessment of a tax on land in an irrigation district.