Payne

The plaintiff brought this action against the defendants as trustees of the Ward Irrigation District, to obtain a decree restraining them from bringing suit to collect certain assessments alleged to be illegal.

The district was established in accordance with the provisions of an act of the legislature to promote drainage, approved March, 1885 (Stats. 1885, p. 204), amended in 1891 (Stats. 1891, p. 262), and also in 1909 (Stats. 1909, p. 25), whereby a method was provided for the drainage of other than swamp.and overflowed land. The plaintiffs’ lands are a part of said district. After alleging the formation of the district, the complaint, by proper averments, recites that, after its formation, the board of supervisors of Fresno County, in which county the district is situated, appointed three commissioners to view and estimate, upon the lands situate in the district, the charges proportionate to the whole expense and to the benefits which will result from such work to the lands in the district; that plaintiffs’ lands are high, never subject to overflow, and do not need drainage, and that the district and its works will be of no benefit to plaintiffs’ lands but, on the contrary,…