Mason v. City of Sioux Falls

Citations

• 2 S.D. 640
• 51 N.W. 770
• 1892 S.D. LEXIS 25

Syllabus

<p>1. It is a well settled rule that when municipal corporations seek to impose upon property owners the burden ol the cost of street improvements, and to hold the property of abutting- owners liable therefor, the statute or charter authorizing such improvements to be made must bo strictly pursued.</p> <p>2. A resolution, adopted and published, declaring it necessary to grade or otherwise improve a public street, must specifically designate the work declared necessary to be done, and the owners of property abutting upon such street will only be liable for the cost of such improvements as are specifically designated in the resolution so adopted and published in the official paper.</p> <p>3. The common council of a city is authorized to change the grade of the streets, avenues and alleys, subject to the provisions of the law; but such change of grade, materially enhancing the cost of grading such street, avenue or alley, cannot be made after the resolution declaring the necessity for grading the street, avenue or alley has been adopted and published, the time for filing a protest by property holders has expired, and a contract for grading executed, without adopting a new resolution, and publishing the same, etc., as provided by law.</p> <p>4. The cost of curbing Prairie avenue,-contracted for by the city under the following- resolution: “Resolved, that it is necessary that Prairie avenue, between Fourth and Twelfth streets, in said City of Sioux Falls, be graded, and worked to the established grade,” — cannot be imposed upon the property abutting- upon said improvement. The cost of the grading, however, if it can be ascertained, independently of the curbing, may bo enforced against the abutting property.</p> <p>5. One of the methods of acquiring the right to the use of land for a street is-that of the implied dedication of the same by the owner of the fee. In an implied common-law dedication, the use of such land by the public as a street, with the knowledge of, and w