City of Spokane v. Merriam

Citations

• 80 Wash. 222
• 141 P. 358
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1294

Syllabus

<p>Eminent Domain — By Municipal Corporations — Proceedings— Prerequisites—Necessity of Attempting to Agree. The provision of Spokane city charter, art. 5, § 49, relating to condemnations, which provides that if the park board shall be unable to purchase at a satisfactory price, any lands sought, the council shall, upon notice given by the board, condemn the same, is not a valid limitation upon the power of the city to condemn only where effort to secure the property sought by agreement has failed; in view of the general statutes, Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 7768-7771, conferring the power of eminent domain and fixing the procedure, without any such limitation or any reference to any action by the park board or authority to delegate any part of the power to the park board.</p> <p>Same—Condition Precedent—Jurisdiction—Waiver of Objection. The failure to agree upon the price of land sought is not a condition precedent to the institution of condemnation proceedings, unless it is so prescribed in the act; hence a failure to allege or prove the same is not a jurisdictional defect and is waived if not raised below.</p> <p>Same—Public Use—Taking of Land for Park. The taking of lands for public parks, boulevards and parkways is a public use.</p> <p>Same—Proceedings—Conditions Precedent—Presumptions. The statutes having entrusted to the city council the power to initiate condemnation proceedings by ordinance, in the absence of fraud the courts will presume that all antecedent executive and quasi judicial investigation prescribed by law preceded the adoption of an ordinance invoking the exercise of the power of eminent domain by a city.</p> <p>Same—Public Necessity. In condemning lands for park purposes, a city need not show an immediate necessity for an immediate use, but has a right to anticipate future needs.</p> <p>Eminent Domain—Public Necessity — Evidence — Sufficiency. Where ordinances providing for condemnation declared that property sought to be taken was necessary for park