Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

31 Kan. 406

John v. Reaser

Supreme Court of Kansas

Decided January 15, 1884

Supreme Court of Kansas · decided 1884-01-15

M'ror from, Saline District Court. Proceeding under chapter 177, Laws of 1879, to determine the boundaries of certain tracts of land. August 31, 1882, judgment for costs against John, who brings it here for review.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1884-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently October 1939

4 state decisions

10188418901900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Horton, C. J.:

¶2This was a proceeding under chapter 177, Session Laws of 1879, (Comp. Laws of 1879, pp. 303-305,) to determine the boundaries of certain tracts of land. A motion was made by the plaintiff in error to set aside all the proceedings of the county surveyor, on the ground that chapter 177 is unconstitutional and void. This was overruled proforma by the district court, and judgment for costs taxed against the plaintiff in error. Complaint is made of this ruling. The sole question presented is, whether the provisions of chapter 177, Laws of 1879, in controversy, are in violation of § 16 of art. 2 of the constitution; or in other words, does said chapter 177, so far as the said provisions are concerned, contain more than one subject, and is that subject sufficiently expressed in its title ? The title is as follows: “An act amendatory of and supplemental to chapter 25 of the General Laws of 1868.” Chapter 25 of the General Laws of 1868 is an act entitled “An act relating to counties and county officers.” Art. 12 of that act prescribes, among other things, the duties of county surveyors relative to the *407boundaries of lands, the establishment of the center of government sections, and the reestablishment of missing corners. Apart from §1, said chapter 177 provides additional rules for the guidance of the officers in the performance of those duties, and gives parties aggrieved by the performance thereof the right to appeal. In Comm’rs of Sedgwick Co. v. Bailey, 13 Kas. 600, the title under consideration was “An act amendatory of and supplemental to an act entitled ‘An act defining the boundaries of counties/ approved March 3, 1868.” It was held in that case that this title was broad enough to authorize the changing of county lines, the establishment of county lines, and the creation of the boundary lines of new counties —substantially the creation of new counties. It was further held, however, that the title of the act was not broad enough to include assessment or taxation of any kind. Within the reasoning there adopted, that the title in that act was comprehensive enough to authorize the defining and establishing of the boundaries of either old or new counties, and within the decision of Philpin v. McCarty, 24 Kas. 392, we think the constitutionality of the sections of said chapter 177 relating to the duties of county surveyors and the determination by them of boundaries of lands can be sustained against the objections made. ,

¶3We express at this time no opinion in regard to §§ 1 and 4 of said chapter 177.

¶4The judgment of the district court must be affirmed.

All the Justices concurring.
/31/kan/406 · .json · Public domain