City of Seattle v. Seattle & Montana Railroad

Citations

• 50 Wash. 132
• 96 P. 958
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 682

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Local Improvements — Assessments— Validity. The right of way of an interstate railroad, used for and devoted exclusively to main line trackage purposes, may he assessed for benefits from a local improvement in an assessment district established by commissioners appointed for that purpose, although it is found as a fact that the premises are permanently adapted to railway uses as an approach to a permanent tunnel, and that they will not be actually benefited by the improvement as long as they are devoted 'to such use, but will be actually benefited in the amounts assessed if and when devoted to any other uses.</p> <p>Same — Statutes—Construction—Constitutional Law — Delegation oe Legislative Powers. Laws of 1905, p. 84, § 22, providing that, in assessments for benefits from a municipal improvement, it shall be the duty “of the superior judge” and the commissioners to-examine the locality and to estimate the proportion of the total cost that will he of benefit to the property, etc., might be unconstitutional as delegating legislative power to tne superior court, if construed literally to require the superior court judge to assist in making theasesssment; and the inclusion “of the superior judge” in said action will he held an inadvertence, where it appears that the law viewed as an entirety limited the functions of the court to the appointment of commissioners and a judicial review of the assessment roll; and the law is therefore not invalid as delegating the levying of assessments to the superior court, or to other than the corporate authorities.</p>