University State Bank v. City of Bremerton

Citations

• 86 Wash. 261
• 150 P. 439
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1003

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations — Local Improvements — Warrants—-Defenses— Nonnegotiability. Any defense available against contractors in public work to whom a nonnegotiable warrant was issued is available against their assignee.</p> <p>Same — Local Improvements — Warrants—Actions—-Defenses— Estoppel. The issuance of a final warrant to a contractor on public work which included the amount of a fixed estimate for the city’s expenses for which the city should have issued a separate warrant to be indorsed by the contractor and returned to the city, does not estop the city from interposing the defense of a credit therefor, in an action on the warrant issued.</p> <p>Same — Local Improvements — Warrants—Payment—Evidence— Sufficiency. The evidence establishes that a certain city warrant issued to a contractor on public work was not intended to apply as a payment on the last warrant issued but was intended to apply on prior warrants, where the amount exactly equalled the total of a sum due on one of the prior warrants plus a sum indorsed on another prior warrant, of which there was no evidence that the holder, a bank, had received the money, and no evidence that the city had paid it.</p> <p>Same — Local Improvements — Warrants—Actions—Defenses— Credits — Estoppel. Where it is impracticable until after final settlement to determine or withhold the amount of cash discounts due from a contractor to a city by reason of cash payments of property owners, the city is not estopped from claiming a credit therefor by reason of its nonretention of a thirty per cent protection fund for which the contract provided.</p> <p>Limitation op Actions — Local Improvement — Warrants—Notice of Fund. An action upon a final warrant drawn on a special improvement fund is not barred by the statute of limitations, where the plaintiff had no knowledge of the condition of the city fund within three years prior to the commencement of the action.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Local Improvements — Warrants — I