Sec. 52-447. Petition to be heard by committee, unless parties agree. - Connecticut Statutes

      Sec. 52-447. Petition to be heard by committee, unless parties agree. The petition, unless the parties thereto agree upon the judgment rendered thereon, shall be heard and decided by a committee of three disinterested property owners of the judicial district to be appointed by the court; and, if such committee is of the opinion that the flowing or taking of such land in the manner proposed will be of public use, it shall establish the height to which any such dam may be built and the water raised thereby, and the length of time or period during which the same may be kept up in each year thereafter, or the dimensions and location of any such discharge-ditches, aqueducts, watercourses or raceways, as the same may be built or improved; and shall assess the sum to be paid by the petitioner to the respondent for the right thus to overflow or take his land in the manner established in its report. In estimating the damage, such committee shall take into account any damage occasioned to any other land of the respondent, as well as to that overflowed or taken, and shall report its doings to such court, which shall add fifty per cent to the damages so assessed, as the sum to be paid for such right so to flow, take or injure such land.

      (1949 Rev., S. 8189; P.A. 78-280, S. 2, 127.)

      History: P.A. 78-280 substituted "judicial district" for "county".

      Certainty in report. 34 C. 86. The committee need not fix the height at precisely that asked for. 33 C. 552. Flowage law recognizes mills and manufacturing establishments as being for public use. 41 C. 91. Distinction as to taxation between land taken for profit and for a town water supply. 44 C. 371. Petitions are to be served by citation, as were bills in equity before the practice act. 49 C. 348. Evidence that petitioners are pecuniarily unable to avail themselves of the right sought is inadmissible. Id., 349. Specific issue held not to involve effect of flowage upon the public health. 52 C. 459. Statutes authorizing the taking or flowage of land by compulsory process should be strictly construed. 65 C. 323. Whether a law empowering riparian owners to create ice ponds on the land of others, against their will, can be supported, quaere. Id., 234. Cited. 69 C. 435. See note to section 52-425.