242.020. Formation of drainage districts. - Missouri Statutes

Formation of drainage districts.

242.020. 1. The owners of a majority of the acreage in anycontiguous body of swamp, wet or overflowed lands, or landssubject to overflow, situate in one or more counties in thisstate, may form a drainage district for the purpose of havingsuch lands and other property reclaimed and protected from theeffects of water, for sanitary or agricultural purposes, or whenthe same may be conducive to the public health, convenience orwelfare, or of public utility or benefit, by drainage orotherwise, and for that purpose they may make and sign articlesof association, in which shall be stated: The name of thedistrict, and the number of years the same is to continue; theboundary lines of the proposed drainage district; the names ofthe owners of lands or other property in said district, togetherwith a description of the lands and other property owned by each;when the name of the owner of any of said lands or other propertyis unknown, this fact shall be set out in said articles; saidarticles shall further state that the owners of real estate andother property within said district whose names are subscribed tosaid articles are willing to and do obligate themselves to paythe tax or taxes which may be assessed against their respectivelands or other property to pay the expense of organizing and ofmaking and maintaining the improvements that may be necessary toeffect the reclamation of said lands and other property, soformed into a drainage district, and to drain and to protect thesame from the effects of water, and said articles of associationshall contain a prayer, praying that the lands and other propertydescribed therein be declared a drainage district under theprovisions of sections 242.010 to 242.690.

2. After said articles of association and petition have beenso signed the same shall be filed in the office of the circuitclerk of the county in which such lands and other property aresituate; or, if such lands and other property be composed oftracts or parcels situate in two or more different counties thenin the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county inwhich there are situate more of said lands and other propertythan in any other county.

(RSMo 1939 § 12324)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 10743; 1919 § 4378; 1909 § 5496

(1953) Where articles of association did not describe easement owned by corporation and named its owner and notice described only servient land through which easement ran, assessment of benefits against easement held improper. Farmers Drainage Dist. v. Sinclair Refining Co. (Mo.), 255 S.W.2d 745.