Party owning dam or reser voir may ap peal from de cision of pro bate judge to district court such probate judge, to the district court, as appeals are taken in other cases, upon giving to any person or persons owning property on said stream below said dam or reservoir which may be destroyed by the bursting thereof, and who shall have appeared and claimed such security in such sum or sums as the probate judge may determine, security against loss or damage resulting from the bursting of said dam or reservoir, which said appeal shall be tried by a jury, who may hear testimony as to the questions involved, and shall also personally inspect the dam, reservoir, or stream, and such appeal shall stay all proceedings as to said dam or reservoir, and the waters therein, except when it shall appear that the danger therefrom is imminent, as aforesaid, in which case it shall be the duty of the said probate judge, while the court over which he presides has jurisdiction in the case, and of the judge of the district court after the case is appealed to that court, by proper writs of prohibition, mandamus, or assistance, to be issued provisionally, to protect life and property against any threatened assault upon either, by the careless or insecure accumulation of waters by any person or persons whomsoever, in the manner aforesaid; and if any person or persons shall resist any officer in the execution of any writ so issued by the said probate judge, Penalty for or justice of the district court, or shall fail to assist such officer under officer in the execution of such writ, when thereto requested by him, the person or persons being thereof convicted shall be punished as for resisting an officer, as now provided by law. Trial on ap peal. resisting an this act. Compensation of jurors SEC. 9. The persons named in sections 3 and 7 of this act, serving as jurors, shall be entitled to all their necessary expenses of transportation, and mileage and per diem of jurors, as provided by law; and if it shall be under this finally determined that no cause existed for the complaint, the complainant shall pay the costs thereof; and in the first instance, such complainant shall advance the necessary expenses of such jurors and their fees, but if the said complaint is true, the person or persons, corporation or act. company, owning, using, or proposing to use said dam or reservoir, shall pay the same, and judgment shall be rendered accordingly, in which case the same shall be a lien upon the said reservoir, and the ditches leading thereto and therefrom, and the waters thereof. When ap experts to superintend constructi o n SEC. 10. That when hereafter any person, company, or corporation, engaged in constructing any dam or reservoir for the accumulation of water, shall be complained of by any person or persons whose life or property may be endangered by the breaking thereof, that the same is insecure, insufficient, and dangerous, it shall be the duty of the probate judge to appoint three experts, under whose supervision the same shall be thereafter constructed, nor shall the same be filled with water until the pointment of owner or owners thereof shall have filed in the office of the clerk of the probate court a certificate, signed by said experts, that the same is so built that no danger need to be apprehended therefrom; and whenever any such complaint shall be made of any reservoir heretofore built of like purport, it shall be the duty of the probate judge to proceed as in this section is provided, and jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon said court to protect, by proper orders made in proceedings therefor, all persons, towns, and communities, against dangers resulting from insecure reservoirs. of dam or resmade. ervoir to be Penalty for erecting or maintaining dam or reservoir so as SEC. 11. Any person, persons, or company guilty of filling, erecting, constructing, or maintaining a dam or reservoir which is so filled, erected, constructed, or maintained as to endanger life or property in the manner heretofore in this act provided, shall be deemed to guilty of erecting, constructing, filling, or maintaining a nuisance, and being thereof convicted, shall be punished as provided by law. Approved February 16th, 1877. or property. Ditches and flumes to be kept in repair Penalty if the owner of ditch or flume allow same to overflow public highway. Duty of road supervisors under this act DITCHES AND FLUMES. AN ACT to compel owners of ditches or flumes to keep the same in repair. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. The owners of all ditches or flumes shall keep the same in such repair so that the water therein shall not overrun the sides thereof and run into and upon any public highway in the territory of Montana. SEC. 2. Should the water of any ditch or flume at time overflow its banks, and run into or upon any public highway by reason of the negligence of the owner, the owner thereof shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be fined in a sum not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars. any SEC. 3. It is hereby made the duty of all road supervisors, in their respective districts, to prosecute all persons violating the provisions of this act, and any such supervisor failing to perform the duty herein required of him shall be subject to a fine of not less than twenty dollars nor more than fifty dollars. SEC. 4. This act shall be in force from and after its passage. Approved February 1st, 1877. Canvass of ELECTIONS. AN ACT concerning elections. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. That section 27 of an act entitled "An Act to provide for biennial elections in the territory of votes cast in Montana," approved February 11th, 1876, be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows: "SECTION 27. After the fifteenth day after the close of any elec county. Manner in which abvotes to be stracts of made. Certificates of election. tion held under the provisions of this act, or sooner if SEC. 2. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved February 15th, 1877. Duty of clerk in case of a Certificate of compensation due election officers. Canvass of trict officers. votes for dis Clerk of coun ty last estab lished to for ward certi fied abstracts to senior county. ed senior ELECTIONS-BIENNIAL. AN ACT to amend section 31 of an act to provide for biennial elections in the territory of Montana. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. Where two or more counties are united in a council or representative district, or for the election of any other officer, the canvassing boards of the counties interested shall canvass the vote of said joint officer or officers the same as for other county officers. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the county clerk of the board of county commissioners of the county or counties last established to make certified abstracts of the canvass, and immediately forward a copy of said abstract or abstracts by mail, as registered package, to clerk of senior county, and the clerk and probate judge, or any other county officer, including the clerk, shall at once canvass said votes, and the clerk of the senior county shall at once issue certificates of election to the person or persons having the highest number of votes entitled thereto. SEC. 3. And for the purpose of this act the county Which 'deem- first created shall be deemed the senior county, and when all the counties were created by the same act, the first named therein shall be deemed the senior county. county. Sections SEC. 4. That section 31 and so much of section 32 of an act to provide for biennial elections, approved repealed. February 11, 1876, as refers to mileage to be paid to the clerk of the board of county commissioners for attending at another county to canvass votes, be and the same is hereby repealed. Approved February 3d, 1877. |