Declamation District—Action to Determine Legality of Assessment—Overrating of Benefits.—-In an action under section 349314 of the Political Code to determine the validity of an assessment levied by a reclamation district for the construction of a levee, the landowner may show in defense that there has been a material overrating of benefits and consequent injuries to the taxpayers, whether such overrating is the result of fraud or negligence on the part of the commissioners.

Id.—Question of Benefits—Discretion of Commissioners in Determining.—But in the application of this rule, the statute contemplates that considerable discretion shall be exercised by the commissioners in the determination of the question as to benefits which will accrue to the several tracts of land included in the district; and that while an arbitrary assessment cannot be levied, the judgment of the commissioners upon the assessment, after a view of the lands contemplated by the statute, must be presumed to have been the result of a consideration of all the elements necessary to a just apportionment of the assessment.

Id.—Presumption Daised by Section 3463 of Political Code—When Inapplicable.—The presumption raised by section- 3463 of the Political Code to the effect that the assessment-list of the commissioners or a certified copy thereof is prima facie evidence of the matters therein contained, and that such assessment was levied in proportion to benefits to be derived from the works of reclamation, may under some circumstances be sufficient to support a finding of the propriety and equality of the assessment, but where the commissioners themselves testify directly and fully as to the method

pursued by them in apportioning the charges upon the land, there is' no room for the play of the presumption, and their testimony should be looked to as a guide to what they did.

Id.—Assessment for Levee—Arbitrary Scale—Values and Benefits. If the commissioners of a reclamation district, in levying an assessment to construct a levee, arbitrarily proceed on the theory that no assessment should be less than one nor more than ten dollars, and do not take into account the value of the land at the time of the assessment and its probable enhancement from the construction of the improvement, and the evidence shows a wide departure in the result reached from the proportionate increase in the respective values of the various tracts of land, a court is warranted in setting aside the assessment.

Id. — Matters for Consideration in Levying Assessment—■ Prior Levees—Condition of Land.—In levying such assessment the commissioners should take into consideration the levees that have previously been constructed and their relation to the protection of the land from overflow, and they should also take into consideration existing conditions of the land as they are at the time of the assessment.

Id.—Value of Land—Consideration of Increase from Improvement. The commissioners should take into consideration the value of the land at the time of the assessment as contrasted with its value after the completion of the improvement; and the value is either the intrinsic or the market value, but there is no way of determining the intrinsic except by applying the te'st of the market value.

Id.—Difference in Value of Land Before and After Improvement as Measure of Benefits.—One method of ascertaining the proportionate benefits to the land from the levee, is to determine the value of the land before and after the improvement, the difference being the measure of the benefit; but this is not necessarily the only method.

Id.—Payment by Part of Landowners—Whether Bars Setting Aside of Assessment.—The fact that an assessment levied by a reclamation district has been paid by many of the landowners without complaint, and by a few over objection, will not' deter a court from setting aside the assessment, if its inequalities are palpable and important and it would be a gross injustice to some of the landowners to enforce the charges as made by the commissioners.