De Von v. Town of Oroville

Citations

• 120 Wash. 317
• 207 P. 231

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations (42)—Ordinances—Records—Proof of Passage—Sufficiency. The validity of an ordinance is not dependent upon compliance with Rem. Comp. Stat., § 9188, requiring town ordinances to be recorded in a book marked “ordinances,” certified copies of which shall be prima facie evidence of its contents, passage and publication, with the proviso that this shall not prevent proof thereof in the “usual way.”</p> <p>Same (43, 53)—Ordinance—Publication—Proof. Proof of the publication of a town ordinance may be made by the testimony of the town clerk and the admission of a copy of the paper.</p> <p>Newspapers (1)—Designation of Official Papers. The fact that, for several years, all town ordinances were published in a certain paper, warrants the conclusion that such paper had been designated as the official paper under Rem. Comp. Stat., § 9177, providing that the city council may select or designate the official paper.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations (315)—Police Power—Fires—Removal of Damaged Buildings—Ordinance—Validity. A town ordinance authorizing the destruction of wooden buildings within the fire limits that have been damaged by fire to the extent of more than fifty per cent of their value is not void for want of power of the city to so provide; nor because of its failure to provide the method of determining the extent of the damage.</p> <p>Same (315). In an action to enjoin the destruction of a building within the fire limits, as authorized by an ordinance when a wooden building has been damaged by fire in excess of fifty per cent of its value, in which the city submitted an issue, and had the burden of proof, as to the amount of the damage, it is error to enter judgment authorizing destruction of the building without determining the extent of the damage, upon misconstruing the effect of an uncertain stipulation which did not amount to an admission by plaintiff that the building had been damaged in excess of fifty per cent of its value.</p> <p>Holcomb, J.