If during the proceedings, before or after the filing of the petition, any of the petitioners withdraw from the petition so as to render the number of petitioners whose signatures remain upon the petition insufficient according to § 21-295, and sufficient additional signatures to the petition of the same or other landowners, whose lands will be affected, are not obtained before the next succeeding term, the court shall dismiss the petition at the cost and expense of those who withdraw from the petition, including an engineer’s and an attorney’s fee for counseling the petitioners, and shall apportion all of the costs and expenses theretofore accrued among those who withdrew at a flat rate per acre, according to the acreage owned by each within the bounds of the proposed drainage district, as indicated in the petition, or otherwise, and judgment shall be entered against those who withdrew and shall be docketed in the judgment docket of the court of the county in which the petition was filed by the clerk thereof if not paid within thirty days from the entry of the order. Ten days’ notice, however, shall be given by the clerk to each person affected thereby, of such order of the court.

Code 1919, § 1738; 1926, p. 607.