Savage v. City of Tacoma

Citations

• 61 Wash. 1
• 112 P. 78
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 1272

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Charters—Ordinances—Enactment— Ordinances Obligating City for Payments. Under a city charter providing that no ordinance “obligating the city for the payment” of more than a specified sum shall be passed before the second regular meeting of the council after its introduction, an ordinance passed on the day of its introduction is void where it provides for contracts for a water extension, and obligates the city to create a special fund for the benefit of the contract by setting aside fifty per cent of its gross revenues from its water system and obligates the city to pay such special fund to the contractor; “obligating the city,” not being limited to the creation of a general indebtedness against the city.</p> <p>Same — Mandatory Provisions. Charter provisions prescribing a definite method for the enactment of ordinances are mandatory.</p> <p>Judgment — Res Judicata — Matters and Parties Concluded. A judgment in an action, apparently a moot case to determine the validity of a contract for a city water extension, in which the validity of the preliminary ordinances was assumed, and the contractor and the city were working in harmony to sustain the contract, attacked as illegal on other grounds, is not res judicata in a second action by the contractor against the city for breach of the contract, defended by the city on the ground that the preliminary ordinance authorizing the contract was void; since the matters involved and the parties in the second suit were different.</p>