Curless v. Watson

100 N.E. 576, 54 Ind. App. 110, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 78
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1913
DocketNo. 7,809
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 100 N.E. 576 (Curless v. Watson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Curless v. Watson, 100 N.E. 576, 54 Ind. App. 110, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 78 (Ind. 1913).

Opinion

Lairy, J.

1. The town of Swayzee undertook the improvement of a street in that town known as Washington Street. The contract was let to the appellee, the work was completed and accepted, and assessments were made upon the abutting property to pay the cost of making such improvement. The appellant Ada E. Curless was, at the time this suit was commenced, the owner of a tract of unplatted land abutting upon the improved part of this street, and Arthur E. Curless was her husband. The suit was brought to enforce the lien of assessment against these lands and it resulted in a judgment for the full amount of the alleged assessment with interest and attorney’s fees and a foreclosure lien. The complaint is in two paragraphs to each of which a demurrer was overruled. This ruling of the trial court is assigned as error and presents the first question for our consideration. We need not consider the sufficiency of the first paragraph for the reason that the court made a special finding of facts which follows the averments of the second paragraph and corresponds therewith, and it thus appears that the judgment is based upon this paragraph. If the court committed an error in overruling a demurrer to the first paragraph of cqmplaint, such error was harmless. Blasingame v. Blasingame (1865), 24 Ind. 86; Tracewell v. Farnsley (1886), 104 Ind. 497, 4 N. E. 162; Lime City Bldg., etc., Assn. v. Black (1894), 136 Ind. 544, 35 N. E. 829.

[114]*1142. [113]*113The objection made to the second paragraph'is that it discloses on its face that the assessment sought to be enforced [114]*114against the lands of appellants is void. After the street improvement was completed the hoard of trustees of the town made up the preliminary assessment roll and gave notice that objections thereto would be heard on December 21, 1905. The final assessment roll was approved and adopted by the board and filed with the clerk on January 2, 1906. There was an attempt to include the lands of appellants in this assessment roll and to place an assessment thereon, but the description of said lands was defective and the name of the owner as stated therein was A. E. Curless instead of Ada E. Curless and the notice given contained the same defects. "Whether the uncertainty in the description of the lands assessed, and the failure to properly name the owner in the assessment roll are defects of such character as to render the assessment void, we are not called upon to decide, for the reason that all parties to this appeal agree that the first attempt to assess the lands of appellants was ineffectual and that the attempted assessment was a nullity. However, appellee claims that, as shown by the averments of the complaint, a new assessment was subsequently made upon the real estate of appellants by virtue of supplemental proceedings for that purpose, in which the real estate was properly described and the name of the owner properly stated. The allegations of the complaint with reference to these supplemental proceedings are as follows: “That afterward, to wit: On the 4th day of March, 1907, the local board of trustees of the town of Swayzee, at a regular meeting of the said board, adopted by unanimous vote, an amendment, correction and supplement to the said final assessment roll, filed as aforesaid, so far as the same pertains to the aforesaid property of the defendant, Ada E. Curless. That the said assessment roll was corrected as follows: The name A. E. Curless in the original assessment roll was corrected to read Ada E. Curless, and the description of said property, as Pt. S. N. W. '26, 24, 6, 228—7/12, was corrected to read as follows: ‘ Commencing one and one-[115]*115half rods east of the northwest corner of the south half^ of the northwest quarter of section 26, township 24 north, range 6 east; running thence east 150 feet; thence south 228 feet and seven inches; thence west 150 feet to the line of said street so improved; thence north with the line of said street 228 feet and 7 inches to the place of beginning, being all that certain unplatted tract of land abutting on said improved street and lying within the corporate limits of the town of Swayzee, Grant County, in the State of Indiana,’ and the amount of assessment was made as originally made, $697. That the said town board, at the same time, ordered the town clerk to give notice to the defendant, Ada E. Cur-less, that the town board would meet at its office, being the town hall, on the 23rd day of March, 1907, for the purpose of hearing any remonstrances or objections to the said assessment and to said amendment and correction before the same should be finally adopted.” It further appears from the averments of the complaint that notice was given to Ada E. Curless by publication which notice fixed a day after the date of the last publication on which said board would receive and hear remonstrances in accordance with the statute providing for notice of the filing of the original preliminary assessment, and that the board of trustees met on the day so named and adjourned to April 6,1907, at which time the amendment and supplement to the assessment role was by the board of trustees confirmed and approved.

3. [116]*1164. 2. [115]*115The board of trustees of an incorporated town has authority to originate and carry forward proceedings for the improvement of the streets of such town. In the making and enforcement of assessments to pay the costs of such improvements, the proceedings are governed by §§108-120 inclusive of the act of 1905 concerning cities and towns. Acts 1905 p. 219. The duties which these sections impose upon the board of public works of a city are required to be performed by the board of trustees of a town, as are, also, the duties imposed upon the common council [116]*116of cities by these sections. The duties by these sections imposed upon the department of finance in cities, are, in towns, placed upon the town clerk. §8959 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 219, §265; Martindale v. Town of Rochester (1908), 171 Ind. 250, 86 N. E. 321. Section 111 of the act of 1905, contains the following provisions: “In the event that there be defects or irregularities in the proceedings with respect to one or more'interested persons or property, the same shall not affect such proceedings, except as to the persons or property, if any, as may be thereby affected, and shall not avail any other person or persons whatsoever. In ease of such defect, supplemental, proceedings of the same general character as those hereinbefore described may be had to correct, remedy, or supply the same.” Acts 1905 p. 219, §8716 Burns 1908. “The power and duty of the board of trustees or common council, as the case may be, under the statute, to make an assessment for such improvements continue in that tribunal until legally exercised. While it is true that a void assessment may be defeated or set aside and held for naught in a collateral action, still, under such circumstances, if the principal proceedings of the board upon which an assessment must rest are not also void, a valid reassessment may be made, by which the objectionable matters or grounds which resulted in rendering the first assessment invalid may be avoided.” Hibben v. Smith (1902), 158 Ind. 206, 211, 62 N. E. 447.

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Bluebook (online)
100 N.E. 576, 54 Ind. App. 110, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curless-v-watson-ind-1913.