Grimes v. City of Seaside

170 P. 310, 87 Or. 256, 1918 Ore. LEXIS 271
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 29, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 170 P. 310 (Grimes v. City of Seaside) 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
Grimes v. City of Seaside, 170 P. 310, 87 Or. 256, 1918 Ore. LEXIS 271 (Or. 1918).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Moore

delivered the opinion of the court.

It is contended that the municipality was without jurisdiction to make the improvement, or to levy a special assessment for any part of the cost thereof upon adjacent land only, because the highway undertaken' to be benefited is a county road and subject to the control of the County Court of Clatsop County, Oregon. No reference to any of the provisions of the charter of the City of Seaside, adopted at a special election held February 28, 1912, will be made, nor will the proceedings undertaken by the council of that municipality, to initiate and make the improvement be alluded to, since it is conceded that the clauses of the organic law of that city and of the ordinances and resolutions enacted and adopted pursuant thereto were strictly obeyed, except in one instance hereinafter mentioned.

Broadway Street is represented on the map of the City of Seaside, which was received in evidence, as commencing on the east at 0 ’Hanna Creek, thence west crossing the Necanicum Biver to the Pacific Ocean. [258]*258The highway immediately east of the Necanicum River and extending northerly and southerly and nearly parallel therewith is designated as Seventh Street, which has been held to be a county road: Cole v. Seaside, 80 Or. 73 (156 Pac. 569).

The evidence shows that E. M. Grimes, C. C. Grimes and S. K. Stanley and the wife of each respectively, on June 29,1892, executed to the public a deed conveying as a highway a strip of land 30 feet wide, being 15 feet on each side of a center line, beginning at a point in the middle of the county road (Seventh Street) opposite the middle of the east end of the bridge across Necanicum River; thence west to the middle of the east end of such bridge; thence crossing the river to a post on the west bank thereof about 80 feet north of the west end of the bridge; thence west 200 feet; thence north 100 feet, more or less, to the intersection of the middle of Pine Street extended eastward; and thence westward along the latter street to low-tide line of the Pacific Ocean. Such conveyance was made upon condition that Clatsop County would, within a specified time, build a substantial bridge across the Necanicum River on the designated line.

C. A. McGuire and his wife on July 5, 1892, also executed to the public a deed to a strip of land 15 feet in width bordering upon Broadway Street, but as this tract is situate east of the Necanicum River, no attention need be paid to such conveyance. The 30-foot strip of land described in the deed executed by E. M. Grimes and others to the public was surveyed June 8, 1893, as appears from copy of the field-notes and a blueprint of the map thereof, which show that the middle line of the bridge across the Necanicum River and for a distance of about 150 feet from the west bank of that stream was run south 83° 50' west; thence west 200 [259]*259feet; thence north 139 feet to Pine Street, and thence west along that street to the Pacific Ocean.

The records of the County Court of Clatsop County show that on July 6,1892, a firm of contractors offered to build a bridge across that river for the sum of $1,630, which bid was accepted and it is conceded that the structure was thereafter completed.

By reason of the uncertainty of the point of beginning of the highway at Seventh Street, a resurvey of the line west thereof was completed April 20, 1905. Field-notes and a map of the survey were filed in the office of the county clerk six days thereafter. A blueprint of that map was received in evidence, and from an examination of such duplicate the course from the beginning point is indicated as N. 89° 58' west to the east end of the bridge on the Neeanicum River; thence N. 77° 30' W. 456.12 ft. thence N. 89° 29' W. 146.4 ft. to the former line which extending north intersected Pine Street. The County Court on May 6, 1909, ordered that the dedicátion and plat of such survey be recorded and that the bridge be changed as soon as possible.

The plaintiff, Gf. M. Grimes, his wife and others on June 1, 1908, executed conveyances, dedicating an extension of Bridge Street west of the Neeanicum River upon condition however, that the county road should be vacated. It was the purpose of these grants to give to the public a right to the use of Broadway Street, as indicated on the plat of Seaside, extending west of the stream to the Pacific Ocean. An examination of the courses' noted on the blue-print, evidencing the resurvey, discloses that commencing at the west end of the bridge the line extends northwesterly, while the street as dedicated runs west, and that one tract of the plaintiff’s land which was assessed for the improvement lies south and two other parcels are situate north of Broad[260]*260way, which street in front of his premises that border thereon is located wholly south of the line of the highway as resurveyed April 20,1905, so that no part of the improvement abutting upon his premises was made upon the county road.

1. Whether such highway was ever legally adopted or • vacated is not necessary to a decision herein, for the plaintiff knew that Broadway Street which was widened by his consent, was being improved, and until the work was fully completed he never applied to the court to prevent the betterment of his land. We conclude, therefore, that the City of Seaside had jurisdiction to assess upon the abutting land the cost of improving Broadway Street west of the Necanicum River, and that this street is not a county road.

By resolution of the Common Council of the City of Seaside, it was. determined to grade and improve Broadway Street with “Gravel Bitulithic” pavement, making the necessary artificial stone curbs on each side, installing catch basins and providing for surface drainage. Warren Brothers Company, a corporation, the owners of the patent right for mixing and using bitumen and crushed rock or gravel, according to a prescribed formula for road building and surfacing, and also the owner of the copyright name “Gravel Bitulithic” mailed to the proper officer of Seaside a “license agreement” permitting any contractors having adequate machinery, to use its patent right and trademark upon equal conditions, which authority is of similar import as set forth in the case of Johns v. City of Pendleton, 66 Or. 182 (133 Pac. 817, 134 Pac. 312, Ann Cas. 1915B, 454, 46 L. R. A. (N. S.) 990). Thereafter plans and specifications of the proposed improvement were duly made and filed and notice published that the contract would be let to the lowest responsible bidder, and [261]*261at the time so designated the Warren Construction Company, a different corporation from that of Warren Brothers Company, being the lowest bidder for furnishing the material and performing the work, and possessing proper facilities, was awarded the contract.

2. It is maintained that prescribing in the ordinance and specifications the use of a patented article, thereby excluded competition and hence the contract is void as creating a monopoly. This question is so completely answered by Mr. Chief Justice McBride in Johns v. City of Pendleton, 66 Or. 182 (133 Pac. 817, 134 Pac. 312, Ann. Cas. 1915B, 454, 46 L. R. A. (N. S.) 990), a case involving similar facts, that no further elucidation is deemed essential or will be made, except merely to refer to the cases of Sherrett v. Portland, 75 Or. 449 (147 Pac. 382), and Temple v. Portland, 77 Or. 559 (151 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
170 P. 310, 87 Or. 256, 1918 Ore. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grimes-v-city-of-seaside-or-1918.