Gerlach v. City of Spokane

Citations

• 85 Wash. 129
• 147 P. 870
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1261

Syllabus

<p>Municipal, Corporations — Public Improvements — Assessment Districts. The fact that a city makes an improvement district including several streets and blocks is not a violation of a charter provision limiting assessment districts to within 150 feet of the side lines of the street improved, where, hy a proper system of bookkeeping, property was assessed with reference only to the street lying within 150 feet of the particular lot assessed.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Public Improvements — Assessments— Unequal Assessments. The assessment of lots within an assessment district at the ratio of fifty per cent for the first lot, thirty per cent for the next, and twenty per cent for the succeeding one, does not raise a conclusion of law that the property is not assessed according to relative benefits, since the presumption is that the improvement is a benefit and the assessment fair; and the burden is upon the property owner to establish otherwise.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Public Improvements — Assessments— Additional Assessments. The exemption of certain lots within a street assessment district from levy for the building of a drainage system included in the improvement was proper, where the cost of drainage had theretofore been assessed against them, they were not in the same relative situation as the lots assessed, and the improvement was not essential to their use and enjoyment.</p>