§ 136-21. Drainage of highway; application to court; summons; commissioners.
§136‑21. Drainage of highway; application to court; summons;commissioners.
Whenever in the establishment,construction, improvement or maintenance of any public highway it shall benecessary to drain said highway, and to accomplish such purpose it becomesnecessary to excavate a canal or canals for carrying the surplus water to someappropriate outlet, either along the right‑of‑way of said highwayor across the lands of other landowners, and by the construction, enlargementor improvement of such canal or canals, lands other than said highway will bedrained and benefited, then, and in such event, the Department ofTransportation, if said highway be a part of the State highway system, or thecounty commissioners, if said road is not under State supervision, may, bypetition, apply to the superior court of the county in which, in whole or inpart, said highway lies or said canal is to be constructed, setting forth thenecessity for the construction, improvement or maintenance of said canal, thelands which will be drained thereby, with such particularity as to enable sameto be identified, the names of the owners of said land and the particularcircumstances of the case; whereupon a summons shall be issued for and servedupon each of the proprietors, requiring them to appear before the court at atime to be named in the summons, which shall not be less than 10 days from theservice thereof, and upon such day the petition shall be heard, and the courtshall appoint three disinterested persons, one of whom shall be a competentcivil and drainage engineer recommended by the Department of Environment andNatural Resources, and the other two of whom shall be resident freeholders ofthe county or counties in which the road and lands are, in whole or in part,located, as commissioners, who shall, before entering upon the discharge oftheir duties, be sworn to do justice between the parties. (1925,c. 85, s. 3; c. 122, s. 44; 1933, c. 172, s. 17; 1957, c. 65, s. 11; 1973, c.507, s. 5; c. 1262, s. 86; 1977, c. 464, s. 7.1; c. 771, s. 4; 1989, c. 727, s.218(88); 1997‑443, s. 11A.119(a).)