After the roll is made up, a notice describing the location of the lands appropriated, the character of the improvement, and the boundaries of the district to be assessed, is published once a week for two weeks in some daily newspaper. This notice also names a day, not earlier than ten days after the date of the last publication, for hearing remonstrants, and states that the assessment roll with the names of the owners to whom damages have been awarded and against whom assessments have been made is on file in the office of the board of park commissioners. A written notice is served upon the owner of each piece of land which is taken or damaged and a notice is mailed to the persons against whom assessments have been made.
After the hearing, the assessment roll is confirmed with or without changes by the park board, and aggrieved owners then have fifteen days to perfect an appeal to the superior court. This is the first important difference between the procedure in Indianapolis and that in Kansas City and Denver, and is one of the reasons for its extraordinary effectiveness. Land taking in Kansas City and Denver is from the start a court proceeding, but in Indianapolis the details of procedure, such as the making up of the award of damages and the spreading of the special assessments, are almost entirely taken care of by the clerical force connected with the board of commissioners. Only rarely is a judicial tribunal called upon to exercise jurisdiction. Even in appeal cases the jurisdiction of the superior court is limited.[60] It may decide whether the park board has properly taken jurisdiction by the observance of the formalities imposed in the act; it may review awards of damages and assessments for benefits; but there is no appeal from the finding of the park commissioners that it is necessary to take private land, and that it is necessary to take the particular land included in their resolution.
Owners of land which is taken or which is assessed for benefit have no constitutional or statutory right in Indiana to have their damages or their assessments fixed by a common law jury, but in its discretion the superior court in appeal cases may appoint a small board of appraisers to pass upon the evidence. This is the second advantage in procedure.
Finally, in Indiana the superior court is a court of last resort in condemnation cases under the park act. By the terms of the act the judgment of the superior court can not be appealed from,[61] and there is no other legal process in the state by which a case can be reviewed by a higher tribunal. The court of appeals said in the case of City of Indianapolis vs. L. C. Thompson Manufacturing Co., 40 Ind. App., 535:
“In this state since the adoption of the code of 1852, the use of the right of certiorari has not been authorized and the only procedure by which the judgment of a lower court may be reviewed by the court is by way of appeal.... Judgment, in a proceeding where the right of appeal is specifically denied by the legislature is not reviewable by the supreme court or this court.... Whether the lower court committed error in the measurement of damages, the admission of testimony in assuming jurisdiction over the person or subject matter, or in any other matter, is not subject to our review on appeal.... There is no vested right in an appeal and the legislature has the power to grant or deny appeals as it deems best.”
Besides possessing the advantages in legal procedure which eliminate the usual delay and expense in land taking, the Indianapolis park commission has adopted a businesslike practice which is most helpful in arriving at awards and which appeals to the sense of fairness of the land owner. A complete card catalogue of owners and valuations is kept in the office of the commission, and in the case of every taking the commission has the assistance of real estate experts as an advisory committee on valuations.
Although the act is only three years old, there has been at least one considerable taking in each district. In the North Park District there have been two, one involving an expense of $154,420 and the other $131,662. In takings involving over $600,000 worth of property and several thousand owners, there have been only four appeals from the findings of the park board, two of which have been decided by the superior court. In one an award of damages of $10,000 was increased to $17,000 and in the other an award of $6,925 was increased to $9,800. In one proceeding 1,600 owners were involved and only 50 were present at the hearing of remonstrants.
All these advantages contribute to excellent results under the park act, but a factor which is quite as positive in its influence is the effect on the community of distributing the cost of land acquirement by levying it as a special assessment entirely on the district specially benefited. Petitions either to have damages for land takings increased or to have assessments decreased are not popular when the bill is to be paid not out of the returns from the general tax but out of the pockets of the petitioners’ neighbors.
The combination of a simplified legal procedure, a wise business practice, and an equitable method of distributing the cost of an improvement has made it possible for the city of Indianapolis to take land needed for public use at a fair price and with little delay. The park board is, however, limited in its activities by the terms of the act which provide that the aggregate amount of benefits which may be assessed against property in a ten-year period can not exceed $1,250,000, and that in any one year it can not exceed $200,000.