State ex rel. Hemen v. City of Ballard

Citations

• 16 Wash. 418
• 47 P. 970
• 1897 Wash. LEXIS 336

Syllabus

<p>MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS—ILLEGAL INCORPORATION — VALIDATION OF CONTRACTS — REASSESSMENT FOR LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS — STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.</p> <p>Laws 1893, p. 226, § 1, providing for a reassessment for local improvements in cities and towns, when the original assessment has been declared invalid for any cause, does not contemplate a direct proceeding for the purpose of adjudicating its invalidity, but it is sufficient if its illegality has been declared either directly or by virtue of any decision of a court.</p> <p>Contracts for local improvements in towns illegally incorporated under the acts of 1888 and 1890 are expressly validated by Laws 1893, p. 183, providing for the legalization of towns which had attempted to incorporate or reincorporate under Gen. Stat., §§ 496-500; and a reassessment for such improvements is authorized by Laws 1893, p. 226, since the invalidity of assessments during the period of void incorporation had been adjudicated by the courts in the case of other towns similarly situated.</p> <p>The statute of limitations will not begin to run against rights of action arising out of the contracts of a town illegally incorporated, until the subsequent validation of the incorporation and of its contracts theretofore made.</p> <p>The act of March 20, 1895 (Laws 1895, p. 270), providing that actions to enforce liens for special assessments by cities and towns may be commenced within ten years after their delinquency, has the effect of giving a ten years’ extension to rights of action which had not been barred by the two years’ limitation act at the time of the taking effect of th,e later act.</p>