Missouri Pacific Ry. Co. v. Road District, 266 U.S. 187 (1924)

Missouri Pacific Railway Company v.


Western Crawford Road Improvement District
No. 67


Submitted October 10, 1924
Decided November 17, 1924
266 U.S. 187

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE STATES OF ARKANSAS

Syllabus

1. Where a special road improvement is abandoned after preliminary publication and inquiry because the cost would probably exceed the benefits to the land included in the improvement district, the state may defray the expense of the inquiry by assessing the lands according to their value as assessed for purpose of county and state taxation. P. 188.

2. The fact that an assessment so made exceeded the amount of the anticipated benefit to the same property, as officially estimated in the preliminary proceedings, did not render the assessment obnoxious to the Fourteenth Amendment, there being no suggestion of flagrant abuse or purely arbitrary exercise of the taxing power. P. 190.

157 Ark. 304 affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Arkansas sustaining a decree for a tax levy as originally entered by the Chancery Court of Crawford County reversing a subsequent decree of that court by which the levy was changed.