Ball v. City of Portsmouth
Ball v. City of Portsmouth
Opinion of the Court
Ball brought suit in the court of common pleas on behalf of himself and numerous other owners of property abutting on Fourth street in the city o£ Portsmouth, that street having been improved under a scheme contemplating the assessment of the cost and expenses of the improvement upon the abutting property. Suit was brought to enjoin the city from collecting assessments on the property of the plaintiffs for specified items of such cost and expenses as were claimed by them
With respect to catch basins, manholes and tiling, their location in street improvements is determined by considerations which address themselves to engineers. When they are so located as to become a part of the intersections, the cost of their construction is imposed upon the city in terms which are too plain to admit of interpretation. If there were occasion to seek the reason for the provision of the statute it might be found in the fact that all that is included within the intersections is to be used in the improvement of the crossing streets when such improvement shall
The item of “incidental expenses” with respect to which the plaintiffs seek an injunction, is for such proportion of the cost of surveying and advertising the improvement as the intersections bear to the whole improvement. It is consistent with the terms of the statute, and with all that is presented for our consideration, to regard the item as included -within the “cost and expenses” of which the corporation is, by the provision quoted, to pay such part as the council may deem just, but not less than one-fiftieth of .the whole. The record shows that the city has paid such minimum proportion thereof and the circuit court properly refused the injunction as to that item.
The judgment of the circuit court will be so modified as to further enjoin all assessments on account of catch basins and manholes and tiling at intersections.
Judgment accordingly.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.