John Ritchie & Sons v. City of Wichita

Citations

• 99 Kan. 663
• 163 P. 176

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Paying — Contract Let — Defective Petition — City Enjoined — Neither Loss of Profits Nor Damages Recoverable by Contractor. When a city upon an insufficient petition of abutting property owners lets a contract to pave a street, and the city is later enjoined in a taxpayers’ suit under section 265 of the civil code from levying special taxes and assessments to pay for the improvement, and the person who. contracted to lay the paving had notice of the pendency of the taxpayers’ suit before he commenced work, although he was not a party to the suit and no temporary injunction was issued, the contractor can not recover from the city on the contract, nor for loss of profits, nor for damages.</p> <p>2. Same — City Liable for Work Actually Done by Contractor. When the proper city officials make a finding that a petition to pave a street has been signed by a sufficient number of abutting property owners, and adopts a resolution to pave the street and lets a contract pursuant thereto, it is estopped to deny the sufficiency of the petition under which it let the contract, in an action for compensation for the work actually done under it, following Sleeper v. Bullen & Dustin, eh al., 6 Kan. 300, 307.</p> <p>3. Same — Where a contract between a city and a paving contractor is illegal only because of irregularities in the proceedings leading up to» the letting o'f the paving contract, and the contract is not tinctured, with moral turpitude, and there was no want of authority to let the contract if the preliminary proceedings had been strictly regular, the city is liable to the contractor for the work actually done under direction of the proper city officers, when that work is adopted and used by the city (Brown v. City of Atchison, 39 Kan. 37, 17 Pac. 465), and it is liable also for that portion of the work actually done which was only discarded and unused by the city because it afterwards changed! the specifications and paved the street with