State ex rel. City of Seattle v. Savidge

Citations

• 95 Wash. 240
• 163 P. 738

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Public Improvements — Assessments— • Shore Lands — Rights oe Purchasers — Priority — Proceedings— Statutes. Where applications to purchase shore lands were made by upland owners, undér their preference right, and confirmed prior to the making of municipal assessments for local improvements, the rights of the purchasers became vested and the assessments could not be added to the appraised value of the land as part of the purchase price, as provided by Rem. Code, § 6880, in cases where “the state has made no lease or contract” with reference to lands “against which an assessment has been made for local improvements;” and it is immaterial that the formal contracts had not been issued prior to the certification of the assessments to the state officers.</p> <p>Public Lands — Shore Lands — Harbor Areas — Lakes — Ownership. Const., art. 15, providing for the location and establishment of “harbor lines in the navigable waters of all harbors,” in front of the corporate limits of cities applies to navigable rivers and lakes as well as tide waters, notwithstanding further limitations therein as to the disposition of tide lands not applicable to inland harbors.</p> <p>Evidence — Judicial Notice. The courts take judicial notice that Lake Union is a navigable lake open to general navigation, subject to the control of the national government.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Public Improvements — Assessments— Public Lands — Shore Lands. Under art. 17, § 1, asserting state, ownership in the beds and shores of all navigable waters up to the line of ordinary high water, and art. 15, which provides that the state shall never give, sell, or lease to any person any rights whatever beyond barbor lines, tbe legislature could not, by Rem. Code, § 6872, authorizing tbe assessment of all lands except tide lands, sanction special assessments for local improvements against barbor areas located and reserved in tbe navigable waters of a lake.</p>