Seibold v. City of Muskogee

1932 OK 742, 17 P.2d 678, 161 Okla. 241, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 503
Supreme Court of Oklahoma·Decided November 15, 1932·No. 21460·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinions

HEFNER, J.

This is an action brought in the district court of Muskogee county by George W. Seibold and others, owning property in the city of Muskogee, against that city and Gravelle & Hamblin, paving contractors, to cancel certain paving assessments levied against their property, and to enjoin the city from issuing paving bonds against such assessments. The trial court entered judgment in favor of defendants. Plaintiffs have appealed, and assert that the judgment is contrary to law.

Their main contention is that defendant city' refused to give them a hearing on their protest against the appraisement and apportionment made and returned by the board of appraisers. It appears that the city acquired jurisdiction to pave the street involved and to levy assessments against plaintiffs’ property; that the proceedings were in all respects regular up to the time the appraisers were appointed. It is argued that the proceedings thereafter were void for the reason that they were denied a hearing on their protest to the report as returned by the appraisers.

The record discloses that the report was duly filed and that the city council, by resolution. set a hearing on such report for August 26, 1929, at 7:30 p. m., and that notice thereof, as provided by law, was duly given. On the date set for hearing, plaintiffs appeared to protest the report. At the time of the hearing the mayor appointed three eouncilmen as a committee to investigate the matter and report to the council. After this action was taken, on motion of one of the eouncilmen, the council then adjourned subject to call. After the committee was appointed, its chairman announced that it would meet at 0 o’clock the following Wednesday morning to consider the protests. On August 28, 1929, the committee filed its report with the city clerk, having found that the protests were without merit, and recommended that the report of the appraisers, as-filed, bo approved and accepted. Thereafter, and on September 12, 1929, the city council, without further notice to plaintiffs, met as a board of review and adopted the report of the committee, denied plaintiffs’ protests, and confirmed *242 the report of the hoard of appraisers, and on the same day levied an assessment against their property to pay for the cost of the paving as assessed by the board of appraisers, and adjusted by it.

It is the contention of the plaintiffs that, when they appeared on the date set bjr resolution of the council to hear the* protests against the report of the appraisers and no action was taken, and the hearing thereof was not continued to a day certain, the council lost jurisdiction over the matter and could not thereafter legally approve the report of the appraisers without first notifying them.

Under the provisions of section 18, ch. 173, S. L. 1923, plaintiffs were entitled to be heard on their protest to the report of the appraisers. This section provides:

“When said report shall have been so returned, the governing body of any city or incorporated town1 shall appoint a time for holding a session to hear any complaints or objections that may be made concerning the appraisement and apportionment as to any of such lots or tracts of land, and notice of such hearing shall be published by the city or town clerk in five (5) consecutive issues of a daily newspaper, or two (2) consecutive issues of a weekly newspaper published in the county and of general circulation in said city or town. The time fixed for said hearing shall be not less than five (5) nor more than ten (10) days from the last publication.”

It was error for the city council, In the absence of compliance with said section of the statute, to levy an assessment against plaintiffs’ property. On this question, this court, in the case of Morrow v. Barber Asphalt Paving Co., 27 Okla. 247, 111 P. 198, said:

“Where the mayor and city council fail to meet ‘to hear and adjust any complaint and review such assessment’ at the meeting called pursuant to the notice required by Wilson’s Rev. & Ann. Stat. see. 449, such assessment is void.”

We think that, when the city council failed to hear the protests on the date set for such hearing, and failed to continue the hearing to a day certain, as it might have done under section 19, ch. 173, S. L. 1923, it committed error when it approved the report of the appraisers, denied the protests, and levied the assessment against the property of plaintiffs without further notice to them.

The Supreme Court of Oregon, in the case of Hochfeld v. City of Portland, 142 P. 824, a case involving facts almost identical to the facts in the instant case, said:

“Where, at the time set for hearing by the city council of objections to a street assessment, the ordinance and objections were referred to the committee on streets, and the report of the committee, some months later, that the remonstrators were called for, and, no one appearing, the remonstrances were considered, and the committee recommends that the ordinance pass and the remonstrances be overruled, was adopted on motion, such action was error; the objectors being entitled to a hearing before the council.”

In Stoner v. City of Los Angeles (Cal.) 97 P. 692, that court said:

"A city council having failed to take action at the next regular meeting after expiration of time for filing objections to an assessment for opening a street, either by hearing the objections or adjourning the hearing, as required by Street Opening Act 1903 (St. 1903, p. 381, c. 268) sec. 19, it lost jurisdiction to act in the matter, except on republication, as in the first instance, of the notice, under section IS, of the filing of the assessment.”

Under these authorities, before an assessment for the cost of paving can be legally levied against them, it will be necessary that a reassessment be made as provided by section 30, ch. 173, S. L. 1923 [O. S. 1931, sec. 6241].

At the hearing of the case, plaintiffs offered evidence tending to establish that their property was not benefited by the pavement. This evidence was by the trial court excluded, and, in our opinion, properly so. The question of benefit accruing to city property within an improvement district is, as a general rule, legislative, to be determined by the legislative body of the city, and its determination will not be interfered with by the courts. M., K. & T. v. City of Tulsa, 113 Okla. 21, 238 P. 452; Grier v. Tulsa, 143 Okla. 244, 288 P. 957; St. L. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Tulsa, 15 Fed. (2d) 960.

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Seibold v. City of Muskogee, 1932 OK 742, 17 P.2d 678, 161 Okla. 241, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 503 (Okla. 1932).

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