Metropolitan Building Co. v. City of Seattle

159 P. 793, 92 Wash. 660, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 811
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 29, 1916
DocketNo. 13459
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 159 P. 793 (Metropolitan Building Co. v. City of Seattle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Metropolitan Building Co. v. City of Seattle, 159 P. 793, 92 Wash. 660, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 811 (Wash. 1916).

Opinion

Holcomb, J.

Appellant’s action was to cancel certain alleged assessments against a tract of land known as the “University Grounds,” in Seattle, and appellant’s leasehold interest therein. Cancellation of the assessments .was denied in the court below. Appellant derived its interest by assignment to it of the lease to its predecessor in interest, the Seattle Realty & Building Company, which was made in December, 1907. In December, 1905, the city council of Seattle, by ordinance No. 18,074, authorized and directed condemnation proceedings to acquire the right to regrade and make certain physical changes in Fourth avenue and other streets adjacent to this property. Pursuant to this ordinance, condemnation proceedings were commenced on or about February 14, 1906, in the superior court of King county, the cause being designated No. 50,820 on the files of that court. That cause, so far as this property is concerned, resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellant’s predecessor, the Seattle Realty & Building Company, for the sum of $15,000 for property taken and one dollar damages to the remainder. It appears from the undisputed evidence in this case that that verdict resulted from an oral stipulation to that effect between the city and the Seattle Realty & Building Company entered into during the trial. The verdict and judgment were rendered in accordance with the stipulation, which had been reduced to writing and was placed on file in that cause. It was further agreed in that stipulation as follows:

“It is stipulated and agreed that said respondent [Seattle Realty & Building Company], its successors and assigns, shall pay any lawful assessments that may be levied by the city of Seattle for the improvement of Seneca street along the southerly side of said University tract, but that said tract of land shall not be assessed for the re-grading of Fourth avenue or Fourth avenue produced over and across said tract of land, from Seneca street to Union Street.”

In November, 1906, the city council, by ordinance No. 14,-784, created local improvement district No. 1,810, and pro[662]*662vided for the payment of the cost of the improvement contemplated, by special assessments against the property within the district benefited thereby. An assessment roll was made and confirmed by the city council in October, 1907, by ordinance No. 17,186. In the fall of 1910, appellant, having succeeded to the interest of the Seattle Realty & Building Company, made application for a reduction in the assessment of its properties affected by the proceedings referred to, and, on December 14, 1910, to carry out the terms and provisions of the stipulation and agreement, according to the contention of respondent, ordinance No. 25,893 was passed by the city council, whereby the assessment against the property of appellant was reduced to $8,235, the same being the amount chargeable, according to respondent’s contention, on account of the improvement in Seneca street. No objections were made to the original assessment and assessment roll in local improvement district No. 1,310 as approved and confirmed by ordinance No. 17,186, the contention of the appellant being that, where the assessment is in itself void, as it contends this assessment was by reason of the lack of jurisdiction in the city council, no objections were necessary. Nor were any written objections made to the assessment as reduced by ordinance No. 25,893. Nor was the regularity, validity, or correctness of the proceedings relating to such an improvement or to the assessment therefor, including the action of the council upon the assessment roll or confirmation thereof, in any manner contested or questioned in the assessment proceeding or in the proceedings for the reduction of the amounts of the assessment. The assessment as reduced has never been paid, nor has any part or installment thereof, nor any part of the penalty, interest, or costs thereon. The original assessment against the property of appellant amounted to the sum of $27,000, which was reduced, as before stated, to some $8,000.

Passing for the present the first contention of appellant, that it is entitled to resist these assessments irrespective of [663]*663its lack of objection to the original or other proceedings for the assessment of the property for the special improvement, it is next contended that, in levying the assessment which purported to be for the cost of the work, the entire university grounds, including that portion laid out and used as streets, was assessed, and for that reason alone the assessments were void. The charter of Seattle in force at the time provided that no greater area than 120 feet back from the street could be assessed in such proceedings for such purposes. We have here, however, the undisputed testimony of the city engineer and of an assistant who prepared the assessment rolls and of the city attorney to the effect that the assessment as reduced in 1910 was levied only upon the area extending back 120 feet from Seneca street. The language of ordinance No. 25,893, reducing the assessment, is not specific as to the exact area it was the intention to assess, but it is specific that it was the intention to eliminate from the original assessment all that portion of the assessment levied against the property for the improvement of Fourth avenue; the assessment for the improvement of Seneca street to remain. Appellant’s property fronted on Seneca street two blocks and a half from Fourth avenue to the alley beyond Fifth avenue next west, and one-half block from Fourth avenue to the next alley east intersecting the block. It extended for two blocks from Seneca street to Union street across University street. Originally the assessment for the improvement of Fourth avenue covered almost the entire half blocks on each side of Fourth avenue from Union street across University street as projected through this land to Seneca street. It is the undisputed testimony of the witnesses for respondent that, upon the application by appellant for the reduction of the assessment, the city authorities recognized that they had violated the terms of the stipulation entered into, to the effect that the Seattle Realty & Building Company, its successors and assigns, should pay any lawful assessment that might be levied by the city for the improvement of Seneca street along [664]*664the southern side of the University tract, but that the tract should not be assessed for the regrading of Fourth avenue or Fourth avenue produced over and across the tract of land from Seneca street to Union street, and that they made the correction and reduction in order to comply with the terms of the stipulation and the judgment thereon, and with the clear agreement with the Seattle Realty & Building Company. It was their intention to eliminate all assessments except from the property extending back 120 feet from Seneca street to the south, and upon that the reduced assessment was placed, and everything beyond that limit, as they express it, was not assessed. Concluding, therefore, that ordinance No. 25,893, reducing the assessment, confined the assessment to the area in these blocks 120 feet back from the south line of Seneca street, we conclude that there is no merit in this contention of appellant.

The next point made by appellant is that the verdict in cause No. 50,320 was rendered and filed June 6, 1906; that respondent, by parol evidence, attempted to modify the final judgment and verdict; that the verdict and judgment are conclusive, and that where damages have been awarded to the remainder in condemnation cases, there can be no assessment for benefits.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
159 P. 793, 92 Wash. 660, 1916 Wash. LEXIS 811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metropolitan-building-co-v-city-of-seattle-wash-1916.