Fehl v. City of Medford

215 P. 180, 107 Or. 478, 1923 Ore. LEXIS 166
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 215 P. 180 (Fehl v. City of Medford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fehl v. City of Medford, 215 P. 180, 107 Or. 478, 1923 Ore. LEXIS 166 (Or. 1923).

Opinion

HARRIS, J.

The record presented to us embraces only the pleadings, the findings of the court, and the decree. We understand from the record [480]*480that in April, 1918, the legal voters of Medford, in the exercise of the initiative, amended their municipal charter by adopting an amendment which is designated in the record as Chapter 14; that this amendment provides for the public sale of property by the city treasurer for the satisfaction of delinquent assessments ; that if no person bids

“a sum sufficient to pay the delinquent and unpaid assessment thereon or installment thereof with interest, penalty and costs, the treasurer shall strike the same off to the city for the whole amount which he is required to collect by such sale. If any bidder to whom any property stricken off at such sale does not pay the assessment, interest and penalty and costs before ten o’clock a. m. of the day following the day of such sale, such property must then be resold, or if the assessment sale is closed be deemed to have been sold to the city and a certificate of sale shall be issued to the city therefor”;

that the treasurer shall deliver to the purchaser a certificate of sale “specifying that the purchaser will be entitled to a deed three years from the date of sale, unless redemption thereof be made”; that redemption of property sold for a delinquent assessment may be made at any time within three years from the date of sale; that if property so sold is not redeemed within three years from the date of sale the treasurer is required on demand of the purchaser “and the surrender to him of the certificate of sale, (to) execute to such purchaser or his assigns, a deed for the property therein described,” provided the purchaser proves by an affidavit that notice was given to the- owner that a deed would be demanded and notwithstanding such notice the owner has failed to redeem the property within sixty days after the date of service. We also understand from the record that [481]*481the plaintiff owned land within the corporate limits of Medford; that an assessment was levied upon snch property for an improvement made by the city; that the plaintiff failed to pay the assessment or some installment of it when it became dne and that the property was at public sale, held in January, 1919, struck off to the city to satisfy such delinquent assessment or installment, and a certificate of sale was duly issued to the city; that on April 15, 1922, the city recorder in compliance with the requirements of Chapter 14 notified the plaintiff that the city held such certificate of sale and that if redemption “shall not be made” within sixty days from the date of service of the notice, “the city of Medford, Oregon, will demand a deed therefor from the city treasurer of said city of Medford”; and that after the service of such notice the plaintiff began this suit.

At an election held on January 9, 1917, two plans were submitted to the legal voters of Medford for refunding the city indebtedness. Each plan involved a proposed amendment to the charter. One of the proposed plans was known as the Hanson plan. At the election, the voters approved the Hanson plan. The object sought to be accomplished by the Hanson plan was to enable the city to refund all its bonded or other indebtedness incurred for paving, sewer and water-mains. At the time of the election, January 9, 1917, the bonded and warrant indebtedness of the city was considerable. Many if not most of the property owners, against whose property assessments had been levied to pay the expense of paving and of constructing sewers, had made application under the general statute, known as the Bancroft Bonding Act, to pay their assessments in installments as permitted by that state law, and had thus brought their prop[482]*482erty under the operation and protection of the state law. The city charter contained provisions, modeled after the Bancroft Bonding Act, enabling the owner of abutting property to pay any assessment, levied on his property for the laying of water-mains, in installments, by filing an application with the city; and thereupon the city was authorized to issue bonds in an amount equal to such assessments. Many property owners against whose properties assessments had been levied for the payment of the expense of water-mains had made application under these provisions of the charter to pay such assessments in installments. Bonds had been issued by the city under the authority of the Bancroft Bonding Act, and bonds had likewise been issued under the water-main provisions of the city charter.

In 1916, the city authorities found the condition to be about as follows: Many of the owners who had not applied for the right to pay sewer and paving assessments in installments, as permitted by the Bancroft Bonding Act, had not paid their assessments; and these assessments were therefore delinquent. Many owners who had brought their properties under the protection of the Bancroft Bonding Act had failed to pay the installments as they became due and there were therefore many delinquent installments. Some owners who had not applied for the right to pay water-main assessments in installments, as permitted by the city charter, had failed to pay the assessments; and so, too, many who had secured the right to pay such assessments in installments had failed to pay the installments when due, with the result that such installments were delinquent; and consequently money for the payment of the outstanding indebtedness was not available, and so it became necessary in the years [483]*4831914, 1915 and 1916 to levy a sufficient general tax to pay the annual interest due on the outstanding bonds. In some instances the property, upon whicti an assessment had been levied and remained unpaid, was not worth as much as the amount of the assessment; and in such case a forced sale to pay a delinquent assessment would have produced a deficit.

In order to remedy the conditions then existing the Hanson plan was devised and subsequently adopted by the voters. The Hanson plan attempted by compulsion of law to withdraw from the operation of the Bancroft Bonding Act all paving and sewer assessments previously brought within the operation of that act, and likewise to withdraw all existing water-main assessments previously brought within the operation of the water-main provisions of the charter. In Colby v. Medford, 85 Or. 485 (167 Pac. 487), we reviewed the provisions of the Hanson plan and held that the plan was invalid and could not be enforced, for the reason that the Bancroft Bonding Act is a statute of promises, involving as its predominant feature a promise to the property owner that he can pay his assessment in specified installments in consideration of his promise to waive his right to challenge the regularity of the assessment, and that therefore an application to pay under the Bancroft Bonding Act created a contract the obligation of which could not be impaired. See New Jersey v. Wilson, 7 Cranch, 164 (3 L. Ed. 303, see, also, Rose’s U. S. Notes); McGehee v. Mathis, 71 U. S. (4 Wall.) 143 (18 L. Ed. 314); 1 Cooley on Taxation (3 ed.), 107 et seq.; Judson on Taxation (2 ed.), §76; 10 R. C. L. 12; 27 Cyc. 726, 892 et seq. The charter provisions governing water-main assessments were modeled after the Bancroft Bonding Act, and con[484]*484sequently the same protecting rule which applied to property brought under the Bancroft Bonding Act applied with equal force to property brought under such charter provisions.

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Bluebook (online)
215 P. 180, 107 Or. 478, 1923 Ore. LEXIS 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fehl-v-city-of-medford-or-1923.