City of Spokane v. Ridpath

Citations

• 74 Wash. 4
• 132 P. 638
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1988

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Improvements—Petition — Signatures —Jurisdiction to Order Improvement. That an initiatory petition for an improvement was not signed by a majority of the property owners, as required by the city charter, is not a jurisdictional defect where the charter also authorized the improvement without such signatures if ordered by a two-thirds vote of the council, and the council afterwards ordered the improvement by a unanimous vote.</p> <p>Same — Proceedings—“Resolution” — Necessity. A charter provision requiring a city council ordering an improvement to direct the board of public works, “by resolution” to prepare a report, is substantially complied with by ordering such report “on motion”; there being, in substance, no difference between a resolution and a motion.</p> <p>Same — Assessments—'Validity—Prior Eminent Domain Proceedings — Necessity. The failure of a city to acquire, by eminent domain proceedings, the right to change the grade of a street, does not invalidate an assessment to defray the cost of making the improvement, and cannot be urged as a defense to an action to foreclose the lien of the assessment.</p>