Title 51, Waters, Water Resources, Water Districts, Drainage, and Flood Control

Each drainage district heretofore organized in this state and each drainage district hereafter organized therein shall be a body corporate, shall have authority to sue in its own corporate name and be sued therein, may contract and be contracted with, may plead and be impleaded, …

Any person who shall wrongfully or purposely fill up, cut, injure, destroy, or in any manner injure or impair the usefulness of any drain, ditch, or other work constructed under drainage laws shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, may be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred doll…

Where a county farm owned by any county lies within any drainage district and would be benefited thereby, the board of supervisors are authorized in their discretion to pay out of the general county fund the pro rata of tax for which such county lands should be taxed if owned by …

The proper chancery court of the county of the defendant district being sued shall have jurisdiction of all suits brought against such district, and between drainage districts suing unless otherwise provided. The chancery court organizing a drainage district shall have exclusive …

The chancellor shall have the power to appoint a master as provided by the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure to hear and determine any and all matters which, under the provisions of this chapter or any act amendatory thereof, it is the duty of the chancellor to hear and determ…

The chancellor or any master appointed by the chancellor shall be entitled to receive and shall tax against the drainage district, as a part of the costs, all expenses incurred by the chancellor or master on account of hearing, considering, and determining any and all matters con…

Each person selected county drainage commissioner shall, before entering upon the discharge of the duties of the office, give bond, with sufficient surety, to be payable, conditioned and approved as provided by law, in a penalty not less than Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00). …

The drainage commissioners of any county in which a drainage district has been organized and who have sold bonds for 80% of the assessment on the lands in such district, and who have provided for the collection of the remaining twenty per cent of the assessment on the lands in su…

The bonds, notes, or other objects of indebtedness issued under the provisions of Section 51-31-111 shall bear interest not exceeding 6% per annum and shall be non-taxable.

Before the sale of any such bonds, notes, or other objects of indebtedness provided for in Sections 51-31-111 and 51-31-113, the drainage commissioners shall publish notice to all parties interested for at least ten days of their intention to issue said additional bonds. Any time…

All proceedings under this chapter are declared to be proceedings in rem. The notices for the organization of a drainage district hereunder and all subsequent notices herein provided for shall be sufficient as notices for the purposes stated, the organization of a district, and t…

When one third of the landowners owning a majority of the acreage or a majority of the landowners owning a third of the acreage of real property within a proposed subdrainage district, composed of lands wholly within a drainage district or partly within and partly without such dr…

Upon the filing of said report with the clerk, he shall make an entry to that effect upon the minutes of said court and shall set down and fix the term of court next thereafter convening, or shall set down and fix a day in vacation, as he may deem best, when the court or the chan…

At the time so appointed by the clerk, the court or chancellor in vacation shall hear the said matter and the objections, if any, of any person or firm interested. If the court or chancellor in vacation shall find that said subdrainage district will conduce to the public benefit …

When a subdrainage district has been established as hereinbefore provided, the county drainage commissioners shall be the commissioners of said subdrainage district; and proceedings to organize subdrainage districts and to do improvements therein shall conform substantially to th…

The drainage commissioners and the treasurer of the main drainage district shall keep a separate account of all funds and expenses and payments of a subdrainage district, so that at any time the account will show the exact financial condition of such subdrainage district, both as…

All taxes levied under the terms of any drainage law of the State of Mississippi shall be payable at the same time the state and county taxes are payable, and if any taxes so levied under this chapter are not paid at maturity, the tax collector of the county where the land is sit…

The commissioners each shall receive per diem compensation as provided by Section 25-3-69 for each day’s actual service, not exceeding four (4) days in any one (1) calendar month, to be allowed on an itemized account rendered to the board of drainage commissioners and approved by…

When lands are offered for sale for unpaid drainage district taxes and no person will bid therefor the amount of taxes, damages, and costs due, the same shall be struck off to the drainage district wherein the land lies, and otherwise dealt with as lands which are sold to the sta…

The lists of lands sold by the tax collector to individuals and to the drainage district shall be made as required to be made by the state and county collector for state and county lands, and shall be filed with the clerk of the chancery court within ten days after the tax sale. …

A list of conveyances of lands sold to drainage districts for drainage district tax or to individuals shall be recorded in a well-bound and indexed book, which shall be kept in the office of the chancery clerk of the county in which said drainage district is located. It shall be …

After two years’ time for redemption has expired, the drainage district commissioners may take possession of land sold to the district for said district, and lease or sell any lands which it has acquired at tax sale to any person in the manner that the said commissioners may thin…

On petition of one third of the landowners owning one half of the land or one half of the landowners owning one third of the land located in any drainage district, the chancery court, if it be satisfied that the petition contains the percentage of the landowners as outlined above…

Any district which has heretofore been organized, including swamp land districts, or which may hereafter be organized under other statutes may become a district under the terms of this chapter as follows: If a third of the landowners owning a majority of the acreage or a majority…

This chapter shall be liberally construed to promote the ditching, drainage, and reclamation of wet, swampy, and overflowed lands. The collection of assessments shall not be defeated by reason of any omission, imperfection, or defect in the organization of any district or in any …

A majority of the commissioners shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of a majority of their number in any matter within their duties and authority under this chapter shall be sufficient to bind the said board.

After the organization of a drainage district, the commissioners shall elect a secretary and treasurer, who may be a member of the board or may be any person qualified to fill the position. He shall give bond in such sum as the commissioners, with the approval of the chancellor, …

The drainage commissioners may employ an attorney to assist in the formation and administration of the drainage district, and to represent the district in all matters of a legal nature, at a fixed or agreed compensation, subject to the confirmation of the chancery court or chance…

Whenever a majority of the owners of lands within a district proposed to be organized into a drainage district, who shall have arrived at lawful age and who represent one third in area of the lands in such proposed district, or whenever one third of the land owners in such propos…

Where the land to be included in a proposed drainage district lies wholly within one county or a judicial district of a county, the petition for the organization of the district shall be filed in the chancery court of such county or judicial district. Where the lands to be includ…

Upon the petition being filed in the office of the clerk of said chancery court, said clerk shall cause three weeks’ notice of the filing of said petition to be given, addressed “To all persons interested,” by posting notices thereof at the door of the courthouse of the county or…

The chancery court in which such petition shall be filed may hear the petition at any term thereof, or the chancellor of said court may fix a time to hear such petition at any time in vacation, may determine all matters pertaining thereto and all subsequent proceedings of the dis…

Upon the day set for hearing said petition or a day to which same may be continued by the court or chancellor, all parties interested may appear and contest the same; and if the contestants file a petition signed by one third of the landowners in such proposed district owning mor…

The terms “benefits” and “betterments,” as used in this chapter are interchangeable and shall be construed as synonymous. The terms “ditches” and “drains” shall be construed to also include levees and closed drains, such as tiling, as well as open ditches.

At the time of the hearing of the petition for the organization of any district, any landowner or landowners desiring so to do may sign said petition and ask that his lands be attached to and made part of said district.

As soon as may be after such petition shall be referred to said commissioners, or within such time as the court or chancellor may direct, the commissioners shall meet and go upon said lands and examine the same, and the lands over which the work is proposed to be constructed, and…

The commissioners shall also find and determine whether all of the lands in said proposed drainage district will be benefited thereby, or drain into and have their outlet by and through the drains and ditches to be constructed in said proposed drainage district. If they shall fin…

If upon the hearing of said report and of objections made thereto, the court or chancellor shall be of opinion that said drainage district should be organized, he shall order the confirmation of said report and declare said district duly organized. If it shall appear to the court…

If, after hearing all objections, if any, to the report of the commissioners and all applications, if any, to annex other lands to the proposed district by the owners of such lands, the court or chancellor finds that a drainage district should be organized, the map of the same sh…

Upon entering such order of record upon the minutes of said court, said district is hereby declared by law to be organized as a drainage district, by the name mentioned in such petition and order of the court or chancellor in vacation and by the boundaries fixed by the order conf…

All moneys that have been advanced or expended in good faith by parties interested in the organization of any district, necessary for the preliminary work in organization, such as surveys, attorneys’ fees, and incidentals thereto, may be repaid by the drainage commissioners as fo…

As soon as practicable after the entry of the order organizing a drainage district, the drainage commissioners shall go upon the lands of said district, examine the same, and assess the benefits to be derived by each separate tract of land for the proposed work, putting down in d…

When the commissioners shall have completed their assessments of damages and benefits, they shall file the same with the clerk of the chancery court; and the clerk is authorized to set down and fix a time for the hearing of objections to such assessments, at the request of said c…

The commissioners and landowners shall appear at the time and place set for hearing objections to said assessment roll, and the court or chancellor in vacation shall hear all objections that may be made, by the commissioners, landowners, or other persons interested, to the amount…

Drainage districts may hereafter be organized in this state under the provisions of this chapter for the purpose of reclaiming wet, swamp, or overflowed lands for agricultural and sanitary purposes conducive to public health in the manner hereinafter provided and, when so organiz…

Any party in interest may appeal to the supreme court of the state within ten days after the assessments have been confirmed or passed upon as provided in Section 51-31-49. The record of the proceedings or the bill of exceptions in every case shall be required to be filed within …