City of Milwaukee v. Utech

68 N.W.2d 719, 269 Wis. 132, 1955 Wisc. LEXIS 488
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1955
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 68 N.W.2d 719 (City of Milwaukee v. Utech) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Milwaukee v. Utech, 68 N.W.2d 719, 269 Wis. 132, 1955 Wisc. LEXIS 488 (Wis. 1955).

Opinion

Currie, J.

The condemnation proceedings were instituted under the Kline Law set forth in ch. 275, Laws of 1931, and subsequent enacted amendments thereto. Because this law only applies to cities of the first class, of which Milwaukee is the only one, it is not included in the Wisconsin statutes but may be found in ch. 9, Milwaukee City [134]*134Charter, Annotated (1934). In order to view the questions raised on this appeal in their proper perspective it will prove helpful to set forth a brief outline of the pertinent provisions of the Kline Law.

In the title of the act, the purpose thereof is stated to be to empower a city “to plan and make certain public improvements, to acquire or condemn property for public purposes and improvements, to make assessments of benefits and damages for such improvements and acquisitions of property, to finance the same, and providing the procedure therefor.”

The first procedural step is for the common council of the city to adopt a preliminary resolution stating that the council deems it necessary to make a certain public improvement, the nature of which need only be set forth in general terms. Then the matter is referred to the board of assessment (hereinafter referred to as the “board”). This board is required to prepare and submit to the council a tentative plan of the proposed improvement, an estimate of the cost of carrying out the improvement, an estimate of the total benefits that may be assessed against the property benefited, a map showing the property to be acquired and of the benefit district comprising the property which will be benefited by the improvement, and a description of the parcels of property necessary to be acquired and of those included in the benefit district.

After the council receives such report from the board it must refer the same to a committee for a public hearing. Because it is this provision of the law which forms the crux of the controversy before us on this appeal, the same is printed verbatim in the footnote below.1 After such hearing the council may approve the report submitted, revise the same, and then approve it as revised, or abandon the improvement.

[135]*135If the council approves the report either in its original form or as revised, it then adopts a resolution to institute condemnation proceedings to have the necessity of the proposed taking of the lands needed to be acquired for the improvement determined by a jury. If the jury finds in the affirmative as to the necessity of the taking, the council then orders the board to determine the compensation or damages for each piece of property to be acquired, or which will be damaged by the improvement, and the amount of benefits to be assessed against each parcel lying within the boundaries of the benefit district which will be benefited by the improvement. The board is required to give notice by publication and posting of a hearing at which any interested person may appear and give testimony as to the damages or benefits which will result from the making of the improvement. After [136]*136concluding the taking of testimony, the board makes its appraisal of the compensation or damages to be awarded for the property to be taken, or that may be injured by the improvement, and the amount to be assessed as benefits to each parcel located in the benefit district which the board determines will be benefited by the improvement.

After completing such tentative assessment of damages and benefits, the board is required to give notice by publication and posting that such assessment is open for inspection, review, and correction, and setting the time and place of a board hearing to consider objections thereto. The board is authorized to make revisions in its assessments, and after the conclusion of the hearing must report its assessments to the common council. The council is empowered to adopt the assessments as reported by the board, or to revise them and then adopt them as revised, or to abandon the project. Any aggrieved property owner is given a right of appeal to the circuit court where he is afforded a trial before a jury as to the amount of compensation or damages to be awarded him for the taking or damaging of his property by the improvement, or of the benefits assessed against his property by reason thereof.

In the instant case the procedure outlined above for the making of the street improvement, which required the acquisition by the city of a portion of the defendant Utech’s premises, had proceeded to the point where the city attorney had instituted the condemnation proceedings to have a jury determination of the necessity of the taking. Utech based his motion for summary judgment upon the following grounds:

(1) That the committee of the council, to whom the council referred the tentative plan submitted by the board with respect to the proposed improvement for conducting a public hearing thereon pursuant to sec. 5 (3) of the Kline Law, had given no notice to Utech, or other affected property owners, of any hearing held by such committee.

[137]*137■ (2) That, if sec. 5 (3) of the Kline Law be construed as requiring that no notice of such hearing be required to be given to affected property owners, the law is unconstitutional as depriving Utech of his property without due process of law.

(3) That the resolution adopted by the council directing the institution of the condemnation proceedings is fatally defective because of the omission therefrom of a provision required to be included by the Kline Law.

It is conceded that Utech and other affected property owners received no notice by personal service, publication, or posting of the hearing held by the council committee on streets, alleys, and sewers, to whom was referred the tentative plan for the improvement submitted by the board. The first question to be answered is whether any such notice is required by sec. 5 (3) of the Kline Law. It is our conclusion that the public hearing specified by such section of the Kline Law is legislative in character rather than quasi-judicial. Its manifest purpose is to assist the council in reaching a proper conclusion as to whether to adopt the plan as submitted by the board, or whether it should be revised and the form such revision should take, or whether to abandon the project altogether. Inasmuch as such public hearing is legislative and not quasi-judicial in nature, it is entirely discretionary with the council, or its committee, as to what, if any, notice need be given of such hearing. The only mandatory requirement of the statute is that the hearing be public, which means open to attendance by the general public.

Counsel for Utech cite a number of cases construing the words “hearing” or “public hearing” appearing in statutes. An examination of such authorities discloses that all of such cases involved a situation where the body or agency required to conduct the hearing was acting in a quasi-judicial capacity. Typical of such cases is that of State ex rel. Arnold v. Common Council (1914), 157 Wis. 505, 147 N. W. 50, in which [138]*138the hearing requirement of the Milwaukee city charter applied to a situation in which the common council was empowered to act in a quasi-judicial capacity in removing city officers from office for malfeasance. The giving of reasonable notice is a necessary prerequisite of any hearing which a body or agency is required to conduct when acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, but this is not the case when acting in a legislative capacity.

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Bluebook (online)
68 N.W.2d 719, 269 Wis. 132, 1955 Wisc. LEXIS 488, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-milwaukee-v-utech-wis-1955.