City of Spokane v. Kraft

Citations

• 67 Wash. 245
• 121 P. 830
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 1157

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Public Improvements — Assessments— Excessive and Arbitrary Apportionment — Abuse of Discretion-Review by Courts. While the courts will be slow to interfere with the discretion of eminent domain commissioners in fixing the limits of a special assessment district, yet an assessment will be set aside as arbitrary and an abuse of discretion, where one block was assessed for three times the depth of the block on the opposite side of the street, and twice the depth of other blocks on the same side of the street, in amounts proportionally greater, apparently merely because it was all owned by one person, and without any possible suggestion that, from its situation or the lay of the land, it would receive any greater benefit from the improvement.</p> <p>Same — Review—Decision—Remand—New Assessment. Upon reversing on appeal the confirmation of an assessment for a local improvement on the ground that one block was arbitrarily assessed an excessive amount, an entirely new assessment will be ordered, inasmuch as the amount to be deducted from the property in question could not be assessed to other owners without a new notice of the increase.</p>