{
  "id": 1754997,
  "name": "Grover CLEVELAND and Sybil CLEVELAND v. GRAVEL RIDGE SANITARY SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 213",
  "name_abbreviation": "Cleveland v. Gravel Ridge Sanitary Sewer Improvement District No. 213",
  "decision_date": "1981-11-30",
  "docket_number": "81-150",
  "first_page": "330",
  "last_page": "332",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "274 Ark. 330"
    },
    {
      "type": "parallel",
      "cite": "625 S.W.2d 446"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ark.",
    "id": 8808,
    "name": "Arkansas Supreme Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 34,
    "name_long": "Arkansas",
    "name": "Ark."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "196 S.W. 2d 919",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "S.W.2d",
      "case_ids": [
        8722647
      ],
      "year": 1917,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ark/210/0575-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "130 Ark. 167",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark.",
      "case_ids": [
        8718592
      ],
      "year": 1917,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ark/130/0167-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "198 Ark. 1149",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark.",
      "case_ids": [
        1459746
      ],
      "weight": 2,
      "year": 1939,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ark/198/1149-01"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": {
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    "char_count": 3540,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.797,
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      "percentile": 0.3836928330570624
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    "sha256": "288415521be2043db971af478de4641f03b26a1aec29299085417025735a4463",
    "simhash": "1:93d4749e8a88db36",
    "word_count": 577
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:01:13.587143+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "Grover CLEVELAND and Sybil CLEVELAND v. GRAVEL RIDGE SANITARY SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 213"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "George Rose Smith, Justice.\nThe key question on this appeal is whether the appellants, who own land within the boundaries of the appellee sewer improvement district, are barred by a 30-day period of limitations from recovering damages assertedly caused by the district\u2019s construction of three large sewage-treatment ponds in the vicinity of the appellants\u2019 land. Ark. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 20-706 (Repl. 1968). This appeal is from an order sustaining the district\u2019s plea of limitations. Our jurisdiction was invoked under Rule 29 (1) (c).\nThe district was organized in 1971, but the construction of the sewer system was delayed for several years. In 1975 the district filed this suit to condemn rights of way for roads and sewer lines across the property of the appellants and others. The right-of-way controversy has been settled, but the appellants had filed an answer asking for $96,000 as compensation for the damage caused by the construction of the sewer-treatment facility next to the appellants\u2019 land. The district filed a reply to the appellants\u2019 answer, asserting that the claim was barred because the district had followed the statutes in 1973 by filing its assessment of benefits and damages, \u00a7 20-705, that net benefits had been assessed against the appellants\u2019 land, that the assessment of benefits was confirmed after the required two-weeks notice of a hearing had been published, \u00a7 20-706, and that the appellants had permitted the assessment to become final by failing to file suit in chancery court within the 30 days allowed by \u00a7 20-706. After a hearing on the issue of limitations only the trial court sustained the plea and dismissed the appellants\u2019 claim.\nWe must sustain the appellants\u2019 insistence that the district\u2019s proof to sustain its plea of limitations was deficient. Unquestionably the burden of proof rested on the district. McCrite v. Hendrix College, 198 Ark. 1149, 133 S.W. 2d 31 (1939). At the hearing its witnesses testified in generalities about a public hearing apparently required by the Environmental Protection Agency, but there was a total want of proof about the district\u2019s assessment of benefits and the appellants\u2019 alleged failure to file a timely challenge. The hearing was held in 1978, but the court\u2019s order of dismissal was not entered until October, 1980. In July, 1981, the trial court denied the district\u2019s motion to supplement the record, finding that certain proffered documents had not been made part of the record. In view of the trial court\u2019s ruling, which is fully supported by the record, we denied a similar motion to supplement the record. Hence the proof is fatally deficient.\nThere is no merit in the district\u2019s suggestion that the appellants, after having filed what amounted to a counterclaim in the trial court, admitted the allegations in the district\u2019s reply by failing to file a response to that pleading. Such a formal denial was not required either under our earlier practice or under the later Rules of Civil Procedure. See Lay v. Gaines, 130 Ark. 167, 196 S.W. 2d 919 (1917); A. R. Civ. P., Rule 7 (a) and Reporter\u2019s Note 3 thereto.\nThe judgment is reversed, and the issue of limitations having been disposed of, the cause is remanded for further proceedings.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "George Rose Smith, Justice."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Gannaway & Darrow, for appellants.",
      "Harrod & Vess, by: E. H. Harrod; and Townsend & Townsend, Ltd., by: Willis Townsend, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Grover CLEVELAND and Sybil CLEVELAND v. GRAVEL RIDGE SANITARY SEWER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 213\n81-150\n625 S.W. 2d 446\nSupreme Court of Arkansas\nOpinion delivered November 30, 1981\nGannaway & Darrow, for appellants.\nHarrod & Vess, by: E. H. Harrod; and Townsend & Townsend, Ltd., by: Willis Townsend, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0330-01",
  "first_page_order": 358,
  "last_page_order": 360
}