Detamore v. Hindley

Citations

• 83 Wash. 322
• 145 P. 462

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional Law — Police Powers — Delegation. Const., art. 11, § 11, authorizing cities to make and. enforce within their limits all such . . . police . . . and other regulations as are not in conflict with the general laws is a direct delegation of the police power, as ample within its limits as that possessed by the legislature.</p> <p>Railroads — Changing Grade Crossings — Police Power. It is a legitimate exercise by a city of the police power to require a separation of grades where a public service railroad crosses a city street, and is in accord with general laws (Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 7507, 7510).</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Franchises —■ Ultra Vires — Railway Bridges Over Streets. Under the delegation of police powers to cities conferred by art. 11, § 11, of the state constitution, and under Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 7507, 7510, conferring power upon cities of the first class to authorize and regulate the construction and operation of railroads within the corporate limits, to construct and keep in repair bridges, viaducts and tunnels, to authorize the location, construction and operation of railroads “in, along, over and across any highway” or street, the action of the city in granting a franchise ordinance to a railway to construct bridges over certain streets is not ultra vires as being in excess of corporate powers; since not only the power to compel the separation of street grades at railroad crossings is a legitimate exercise of the police power, but authority is expressly conferred by the employment of the word “over” in conjunction with “in, along and across,” in the statute authorizing the grant of such ordinances.</p> <p>Same — Streets—Regulation and Control — Review by Courts. Since the power to require grade separations for streets and railways exists as an integral part of the police power of the city, the appropriate means to its exercise rests largely in the discretion of the city’s governing body, and, in the absence of a clear abuse, will