Commissioners Commercial Waterway District No. 2 v. Seattle Factory Sites Co.

Citations

• 76 Wash. 181
• 135 P. 1042
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1800

Syllabus

<p>Eminent Domain — Waterway Districts — Proceedings-—Trial— Damages and Benefits — Separate Issues. Under chapter 11 of Laws 1911, p. 11 (3 Rem. & Bal. Code, § 8166a et seq.), providing that, in proceedings to establish a commercial waterway district, the jury shall make a separate assessment of damages for land taken or damaged, and shall further find a maximum amount of benefits to be derived by each landowner to be levied as a special assessment, the proceedings, while in form one case, is in substance the trial of two separate classes of issues; first, the question of compensation, and second, the question of benefits, which are properly tried and submitted to the jury separately.</p> <p>Same — Petition. In proceedings to establish a commercial waterway district, under Laws 1911, p. 11 (3 Rem. & Bal. Code, § 8166a et seq.), the estimates of benefits to the various tracts, stated in the original petition, are in no sense assessments, but are mere allegations, and property owners cannot be prejudiced by the fact that the commissioners proceeded upon an erroneous theory in estimating the alleged benefits.</p> <p>Same — Jury Trial — Separate Trials. There is no constitutional right to a jury trial on the issue of the benefits received in proceedings to establish a commercial waterway district, and the statute providing that the jury shall determine the benefits does not provide for separate trials as to each tract; hence separate trials cannot be demanded.</p> <p>Same — Benefits — Trial — Submission of Issues — Form of Verdict. In proceedings to establish a commercial waterway district, it is proper to submit to the jury, on the trial of the issue of benefits, a printed form of verdict containing printed descriptions of the tracts claimed to be benefited, with the amounts of the maximum benefits, as claimed in the petition, printed opposite the respective descriptions, where objecting landowners were respectively permitted to prepare and submit separate verdicts in