Sunset Golf Club, Inc. v. City of Sioux

46 N.W.2d 548, 242 Iowa 739, 1951 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 428
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMarch 6, 1951
Docket47805
StatusPublished

This text of 46 N.W.2d 548 (Sunset Golf Club, Inc. v. City of Sioux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunset Golf Club, Inc. v. City of Sioux, 46 N.W.2d 548, 242 Iowa 739, 1951 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 428 (iowa 1951).

Opinion

Mulroney, J.

The Sunset Golf' Club, Incorporated, filed a petition in equity against Sioux City wherein plaintiff alleged it was the owner of “tax Lot Four (4) Auditor’s Plat of part of the Southeast Quarter of Section Seventeen (17), Township Eighty-nine (89), Range Forty-seven (47), and the Northeast Quarter of Section Twenty (20), Township Eighty-nine (89), Range Forty-seven (47) in Woodbury County, Iowa;” that during the year 1949 the defendant-city constructed a sidewalk abutting the above property; and that the proceedings which resulted in the levy and assessment against the plaintiff for the sidewalk improvement were incorrect and insufficient to confer jurisdiction on the city to make such levy and assessment. The prayer was for a decree declaring the assessment void.

The plaintiff’s action is described to us as a “combined appeal” from the city’s refusal to cancel the assessment and “an injunction action” asking the assessment be declared illegal. After the city generally denied, the case was tried, resulting in a decree denying the appeal and plaintiff appeals to this court.

Plaintiff’s golf course abuts on the southwest side of Stone Park Boulevard in Sioux City. On April 1, 1949 the city council by unanimous vote adopted a resolution ordering, construction of permanent sidewalks in about twenty-five different additions to Sioux City and describing about one hundred lots “to be assessed.” Among the descriptions was “Sunset View Addition vacated Lot 14, Block (blank) Southwest side Stone Park Boulevard.” This resolution was published in the newspaper on April *741 14, 1949. On June 3, 1949 the city adopted a resolution ordering bids for the construction of the said sidewalks. This resolution contained the same description as above. On July 8 the council adopted a resolution accepting Kudron Construction Company’s bid for the said sidewalk construction. This resolution listed the additions wherein the sidewalks were to be constructed but Sunset View Addition is omitted from the list of said additions. It is also omitted from the city engineer’s report recommending acceptance of Kudron’s bid. The next resolution of the city council is dated January 13, 1950. In this resolution the council, pursuant to the attached report and recommendation of the engineer, accepted the construction of the sidewalks. In this resolution and report the list of descriptions includes the Sunset View Addition substantially as in the April 1, 1949 resolution. The next two resolutions of the council of January 13, 1950 and February 24, ■ 1950 provide for notice and levy of assessment upon the abutting property owners. In the notice resolution the property for the first time was described: “Auditor’s plat — part of the Southeast Quarter Section 17, 89, 47, Tax Lot Four, Block Fourteen.”

It was stipulated by the parties “that the property of the plaintiff involved herein and against which an assessment for sidewalk has been levied or adopted to be levied was formerly block fourteen of Sunset View Addition to Sioux City, Iowa which block fourteen was entirely vacated several years prior to the construction of said sidewalks, and that the property involved is now and has been for some years operated as a golf course.”

It was also stipulated between the parties “that the president of the plaintiff corporation had actual notice of the pending or the planning of a permanent sidewalk on or about May 1, 1949 by reason of the receipt by a principal stockholder of the plaintiff corporation of a document entitled ‘Sidewalk Notice’.” It also appears that on October 21, 1949, “at which time the actual installation of the sidewalk was just commencing,” plaintiff filed a protest, dated October 17, 1949, with the city council. In this protest plaintiff objected to any special assessment being levied against its property for sidewalk on the southerly side of Stone Park Boulevard “for the reason that said sidewalk is not of any benefit at all to the objector’s property, and for the further reason that said sidewalk is unnecessary and will be only temporary in *742 character because of contemplated changes in the course of Perry Creek * * The record shows these objections were overruled in the resolution of February 24, 1950.

I. Plaintiff’s first point is that its “property was not described in the resolution of necessity [April 1,1949] nor in any of the notices or proceedings by which the city could have acquired the legal right to levy a special assessment.” It seems to be admitted that the description “vacated Lot 14 Sunset Yiew Addition” is faulty. Plaintiff admits the description in the notice resolution of January 13,1950 comes close to correctly describing its property and would probably be adequate.

The trouble with plaintiff’s argument, as the trial court pointed out, is that neither the statutes nor the municipal ordinances governing the city’s power to construct sidewalks requires a legal description of the property to- be assessed in the resolutions or preliminary proceedings. The sidewalks statutes appear at the end of chapter 389, Code, 1950. The first section (389.31) provides that cities shall have power to provide for construction of permanent sidewalks after the permanent grade has been established, “and to assess the cost thereof on the lots or parcels of land in front of which the same shall be constructed.” The section further provides for a three-fourths vote of all the members of the council when the improvement is not made on petition of the property owners.

We have held that no resolution of necessity is required under the above statute. Northern Light Lodge v. Town of Monona, 180 Iowa 62, 161 N.W. 78, L. R. A. 1918A 150; Perrott v. Balkema, 211 Iowa 764, 767, 234 N.W. 240, 241. In the last cited case we said: “The order requiring and directing the construction * * * of a permanent * * * sidewalk by the council may 'be by either resolution or motion.”

In the first cited case we held a sidewalk was not a “street improvement” within the jorovisions of chapter 391. In any event, there is no requirement that the motion or resolution contain a legal description of the “property to be assessed.” The statute, as we pointed out in Zalesky v. Cedar Rapids, 118 Iowa 714, 92 N.W. 657, is a grant of power in general terms which gives the city authority to adopt ordinances for carrying into effect the *743 powers and duties conferred. So we must look' to the ordinances which the city adopted for the procedural requirements.

The record states chapter 99 of the Municipal Code of Sioux City was received in evidence and sections 99.2, 99.6, 99.7 and 99.9 are then set forth.

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Related

Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co. v. Sedgwick
213 N.W. 435 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1927)
Perrott v. Balkema
234 N.W. 216 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1931)
Peoples Investment Co. v. City of Des Moines
241 N.W. 464 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1932)
Zalesky v. City of Cedar Rapids
92 N.W. 657 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1902)
Northern Light Lodge, No. 156 v. Town of Monona
180 Iowa 62 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
46 N.W.2d 548, 242 Iowa 739, 1951 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 428, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunset-golf-club-inc-v-city-of-sioux-iowa-1951.