Gerard v. City of Seattle

Citations

• 73 Wash. 519
• 132 P. 227
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1631

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Improvements—Agreement to Pay Assessment — Mutuality. An agreement by property owners to pay for an improvement, the assessment for which had been declared invalid, is not void for want of mutuality, although it did not compel the city to complete the work, where the work had been stopped on account of the invalidity of the assessment and was resumed on the faith of the contract and completed without any notice of withdrawal from the contract.</p> <p>Same — Agreement to Pay Assessments — Consideration. Such an agreement is not void for want of consideration, on thé theory that the city and contractor were bound to complete the work, since the failure of the assessments relieved the contractor from performing.</p> <p>Same — Agreement to Pay Assessments — Construction. An agreement by property owners to pay for an improvement by the “front foot as defined by the city charter,” authorizes a computation by the actual frontage on the street plus the “lateral” frontage upon the ratio required by the city charter in making assessments to the center of the block for lateral streets.</p> <p>Same. Under an agreement by property owners to pay for assessments to be levied for an improvement “in ten annual installments in like manner” as the original assessment, which had been held invalid and three installments of which were past due, the assessment should be made for ten installments falling due at the time fixed in the original assessments, and three of which were due, instead of seven assessments covering the unexpired period.</p>