Sivyer & Sons Co. v. City of Spokane
Sivyer & Sons Co. v. City of Spokane
Opinion of the Court
This action arose upon an appeal to the superior court from so much of an order of the city council of Spokane, confirming an assessment roll for the paving of Seventh avenue from Howard street to Monroe street, as affected the property of the objector, Walter C. Sivyer & Sons Company. We reproduce from appellant’s brief a plat of the improvement district which, though not introduced in evidence, was, in argument, admitted to be correct.
The shaded portions represent the property included in the district. The objector’s property is in that part of the district north of Seventh avenue, and comprises the two tracts numbered 12 and 13 in small figures. Seventh avenue runs east and west; Howard and Monroe streets, north and south. Between these two streets, Seventh avenue is intersected only by Lincoln street, also running north and south, parallel with, and about 300 feet east of Monroe street. About the width of an ordinary city block, or 300 feet to the east of,
The sole question presented is: Can the respondent’s property be legally included in the district, under the provisions of section IS of the act of 1911, Laws of 1911, page 446, which, so far as here material, reads as follows:
“Except in the cases herein otherwise specifically provided for and unless otherwise provided in the ordinance ordering such improvement, such district shall include all the property between the termini of said improvement abutting upon, adjacent, vicinal or proximate to the street, avenue, lane, alley, boulevard, park drive, parkway, public place or square proposed to be improved to a distance back from the marginal lines thereof to the center line of the blocks facing or abutting thereon; Provided, That in any case such distance back shall be at least ninety (90) feet: And provided further, That in*286 case of unplatted property, the distance back shall be the same distance as that included in the assessment of the platted lands immediately adjacent thereto. All property included within said limits of such local improvement district shall be considered and held to be the property and to be all the property specially benefited by such local improvement, and shall be the property to be assessed to pay the cost and expense thereof or such part thereof as may be chargeable against the property specially benefited by such improvement, which cost and expense shall be assessed upon all of said property so benefited in accordance to the special benefits conferred on such property in proportion to area and distance back from the marginal line of the street, or other public way or area improved.” (3 Rem. & Bal. Code, § 7892-13.)
It is clear that, in enacting this law, the legislature had in mind two classes of property, namely, that platted into ordinary city blocks and usually regarded as platted property, and that not so platted. We find it unnecessary to enter into the extended discussion of decisions from other jurisdictions invited by the briefs as to the abstract definition of the word “block,” since the act itself, by an unmistakable inference, leaves that question to be solved by a reference to the particular plat in which the assessment district is located. This is made clear by the proviso as to the inclusion in the district of unplatted property “that the distance back shall be the same as that included in the assessment of platted lands immediately adjacent thereto.” Obviously, the legislature never intended to use the word “block” in the broad sense of a square included by four streets, how far soever apart and how large soever the resulting square, but did intend the square included by four streets as located by the system or scheme of streets prevailing generally in the environing city plat in which the given assessment district may be located. By “platted, property” is evidently intended lands so included by the regularly placed intersecting streets and by “unplatted property” is intended lands not so included. Fractional blocks and irregular blocks produced by interference with the general street scheme, by the topography of the ground,
If the respondent’s property were so situated by reason of the character of the ground or of other physical obstacles, or so improved as to raise a presumption that Sixth avenue would never be extended through it, the case would be different, since in such a case the respondent’s property would forever escape assessment for the improvement of cross streets unless the land so rendered incapable of subdivision were
We do not hold that the mere fact that a block is materially larger than other blocks is alone sufficient to withdraw the land therein from the operation of the statute as applied to platted lands, but we do hold that land readily susceptible to subdivision into blocks of ordinary size by a mere extension of abutting streets, which has never been so subdivided, is unplatted land.
We are of the opinion that the tract extending from Seventh avenue to Fifth avenue, and between Lincoln street and Post street extended, is unplatted land, within the meaning of the statute, and that the line of the assessment district should have been extended back upon it no further than upon the platted property on the one side and on the unplatted property on the other. This, as we understand the record, would exclude the respondent’s property.
We find no error in the court’s decision.
It is affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Gose, Chadwick, and Main, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Sivyer & Sons Company v. The City of Spokane
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- 5 cases
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- Syllabus
- Municipal Corporations — Improvements — Assessments — Districts — Property Included — “Platted Property” — Statutes — Construction. Under 3 Rem. & Bal. Code, § 7892-13, providing that the assessment district shall include all property between the términi of said improvement abutting upon, adjacent, vicinal or proximate to the street improved, to a distance back to' the center line of the block, and in case the property is unplatted, the distance back shall be the same as that'included in the assessment of the platted lands immediately adjacent thereto, the term “block” was intended to refer to a square included by four streets as located by the prevailing scheme of streets in the locality; and “platted” property refers to that included by the regularly placed intersecting streets where the lands are capable of being platted; and “unplatted” lands refers to lands not so included; hence, where the next street to the north had been dedicated through1 only part of the abutting lands, the other portion of such lands is “unplatted,” if capable thereof, and cannot be assessed back further than the immediately adjoining platted property, which extended back only half way to the next street.