Malette v. City of Spokane

Citations

• 68 Wash. 578
• 123 P. 1005
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 1334

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Improvements — Excessive Assessments — Ordinances Fixing Minimum Wage — Reasonableness. A contract under a city ordinance requiring all common labor on public works to be paid a minimum wage, which was at a rate of from fifty to ninety cents higher for eight hours labor than the wages paid in private employment, may be objected to by a property owner assessed for a special improvement as an arbitrary and unreasonable discrimination in favor of a class of citizens, and as improperly restricting competition or imposing an unwarranted burden by unreasonably increasing the cost of' the work, where over fifty per cent of the cost of the improvement was for common labor; entitling the objecting owner to a reduction of the assessment figuring the labor at a reasonable wage.</p> <p>Same — Competitive Bps. Such an ordinance conflicts with a charter provision requiring the contracts to be let upon competitive bids.</p> <p>Dunbar, C. J., dissents.</p>