Gamburg v. City of Alexandria

85 So. 2d 276, 1956 La. App. LEXIS 560
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 2, 1956
Docket8383
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 85 So. 2d 276 (Gamburg v. City of Alexandria) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gamburg v. City of Alexandria, 85 So. 2d 276, 1956 La. App. LEXIS 560 (La. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

85 So.2d 276 (1956)

Harry GAMBURG, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CITY OF ALEXANDRIA et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 8383.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

February 2, 1956.
Rehearing Denied March 2, 1956.
Writ of Certiorari Denied May 7, 1956.

*278 J. B. Nachman, Alexandria, for appellant.

Frank H. Peterman, Alexandria, for appellees.

AYRES, Judge.

This appeal is taken by plaintiff from a judgment of the trial court rejecting his demands and prayer for both a prohibitory and mandatory injunction in connection with a certain paving project on North 18th Street from Bolton Avenue to Rapides Avenue in the City of Alexandria. The appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Louisiana and that court transferred the matter to us. 227 La. 687, 80 So.2d 372. By injunctive process, plaintiff sought to enjoin the alleged illegal abandonment and obstruction of a part of North 18th Street in Alexandria, Louisiana, and compel the removal of a concrete curb erected almost entirely across the street, and prohibiting the inclusion in the cost of paving of said project the expense of paving of a part of Shirland Avenue, as well as the expense for the curb and gutters not only on said Avenue but surrounding a circle constructed at the intersection of said Avenue and 18th Street.

Plaintiff is the co-owner of property located at the intersection of North 18th Street and Rapides Avenue, upon the latter of which said property fronts, the rear extending northward on 18th Street, with an entrance to the back by an alley from said street.

The defendants are the City of Alexandria, W. H. Lambdin, Street Commissioner, and Charles W. Cook, Acting City Engineer.

On July 13, 1953, plaintiff and a group of other property owners and taxpayers of the City of Alexandria petitioned the Commission Council of said City as follows:

"We, the undersigned, owners of real estate abutting upon North 18th Street from Bolton Avenue to Rapides Avenue hereby request and petition your Honorable body, by proper ordinance and proceedings, to cause the paving of the street between designated points with six-inch Portland cement concrete, together with necessary concrete curb and gutter and drainage structures; said work to be done and paid for as provided for in the 5-payment plan, Sections 3381 to 3391 inclusive of Title 33 of the Revised Statutes of 1950, as revised."

A brief description of the locale of these streets is deemed necessary for an understanding of the issues presented and the discussions which will follow. Bolton Avenue, running in a northwest-southeast direction, and Rapides Avenue, in an east and west direction, are principal thorough-fares *279 for traffic entering and leaving the western and northern sections of the City. Their intersection forms the apex of a triangle with North 18th Street, running north and south, forming its base connecting these two thoroughfares. Shirland Avenue runs east and west parallel to Rapides Avenue and crosses North 18th Street near but south of its intersection with Bolton Avenue and then continues a short distance eastward to its own intersection with Bolton Avenue.

Plaintiff alleges that, pursuant to petition addressed to the City Council by property owners of property abutting North 18th Street under the provisions of LSA-R.S. 33:3381 et seq., petitioners requested said North 18th Street be paved with Portland cement concrete and that the necessary concrete curb, gutter and drainage structures be constructed. The record establishes that this petition was presented to the Commission Council on August 3, 1953, which was on that date referred to the Acting City Engineer for checking, a report on which was made September 23, 1953, on which date the Council by resolution ordered the paving of North 18th Street from Rapides Avenue to Bolton Avenue and directed the Secretary-Treasurer of the City to advertise for bids, to be opened on October 19. Pursuant to that authority, an appropriate advertisement for bids was inserted in the "Town Talk" in its issues published September 28 and October 5, 1953, which bids were received and opened in connection with said work. The bids were referred to the Street Commissioner and Acting City Engineer for tabulation, a report of which was made to the Commission Council November 2, 1953, on which date a resolution was introduced to award the contract to W. R. Aldrich & Company, notice of which was given by publication in the "Town Talk" of November 3, 1953. The resolution authorizing the execution of the contract was adopted on November 12, 1953, wherein the Mayor was authorized to sign the contract for and on behalf of the City, which was done on that date.

By the terms of this contract, Aldrich & Company agreed to pave North 18th Street from Rapides Avenue to Bolton Avenue "as provided for in the plans, specifications, proposal and other contract documents and under the supervision and according to the instructions of said Engineer, etc." Work under the contract began January 14, 1954, and continued until February 5, when plaintiff made a protest as to the manner in which the work was being done at the intersection of the street with Shirland Avenue. Conferences were held by the Commissioner and plaintiff February 6 and 8 wherein the Commissioner, on the recommendation of the Acting City Engineer, agreed to reduce the size of the traffic island contemplated to be constructed in said intersection and to set the curb back a few feet in front of the Colonial Cafe located on the west side of North 18th Street north of Shirland Avenue and south of Bolton Avenue. Plaintiff was not satisfied with this arrangement, contending that the petition and the proceedings based thereon authorized only the paving of the street between the two avenues and from one to the other; that, accordingly, the Commission Council was without authority to erect or construct a circular curb across practically the entire width of North 18th Street and direct traffic around the same and in between a traffic island located at the intersection of Shirland Avenue and North 18th Street and thereby abandon a portion of said street and pave a portion of Shirland Avenue pursuant to a petition requesting only the paving of North 18th Street between the avenues referred to.

North 18th Street has a width of 60 feet. The paving, as constructed, had a width of 36 feet, leaving unpaved 12 feet on each side between the concrete slab and the street line. The circular curb in the front of the aforesaid Colonial Cafe projected a distance of approximately 45 feet from the west line of the street right-of-way, or about 33 feet from the west curb line of North 18th Street, as shown by scale of the drawings filed in evidence, *280 which was reduced by order of the Commissioner as aforesaid to approximately 30 feet from the said west curb line of said street.

Plaintiff contends that the paving should have been done in accordance with the provisions of the petition, which requested the paving of North 18th Street as "dedicated" and between Rapides and Bolton Avenues; that the Commissioner and the Acting City Engineer altered the plans and specifications without the authority of either the petition of the property owners or of the Commission Council; that the aforesaid curb extending almost entirely across North 18th Street interfered with and impeded the flow of traffic and constituted an obstruction and a hazard to traffic, and that as a result of the aforesaid impediment to traffic entering North 18th Street, he had sustained a pecuniary loss and a depreciation of his property.

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Bluebook (online)
85 So. 2d 276, 1956 La. App. LEXIS 560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gamburg-v-city-of-alexandria-lactapp-1956.