State ex rel. Security Savings Society v. Moss

Citations

• 44 Wash. 91
• 86 P. 1129
• 1906 Wash. LEXIS 793

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Special Assessment Districts. Under Laws 1888, p. 16, a municipality of less than six thousand inhabitants has no power to create a special assessment district.</p> <p>Same — Special Assessment Districts. The general incorporation act of 1888 (Laws 1888, p. 224, § 23) empowers municipalities to create special assessment districts; and a contract by a city for a local improvement, agreeing to pay for the work as fast as the city collects and receives the special assessments, does not create a liability against the city.</p> <p>Same — Liability Where Special • Assessment Insufficient. Where a municipality, organized under the void act of 1888, contracted for street improvements payable with warrants on a special assessment fund was, after the completion of the work, reorganized under the act of 1890, and thereafter ratified the indebtedness for the street improvements aforesaid and declared it to be a town debt, warrants drawn on the general fund after the exhaustion of the special iund, in exchange for special assessment warrants, are without consideration and void; since the assessment district and not the city was liable therefor.</p> <p>Same — Indebtedness of Special Assessment District — Ratification. The balance due a contractor upon the indebtedness of a special assessment district for a local improvement, after the assessment is exhausted, is not such a moral obligation of the town as caD be ratified and made a legal debt of the town.</p> <p>Same — General Fund -Warrants — Consideration. Warrants on the general fund issued in exchange for special assessment warrants after the completion of improvements are without consideration where the city was not liable for the special warrants.</p>