Clough v. City of Colorado Springs

• Citation: 197 P. 896,70 Colo. 87
• Decision Date: 15 March 1921
• Docket Number: 10009.
• Parties: CLOUGH v. CITY OF COLORADO SPRINGS et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

197 P. 896

70 Colo. 87

CLOUGH v. CITY OF COLORADO SPRINGS et al.

No. 10009.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

March 15, 1921

Rehearing Denied May 2, 1921.

Error to District Court, El Paso County; John W. Sheafor, Judge. John W. Sheafor, Judge.

Suit by Richard Clough, a resident and taxpayer of the city of Colorado Springs, for himself and all other residents and taxpayers of the city similarly situated, against the City of Colorado Springs, a municipal corporation, and Chas. E Thomas, Mayor, and Perry Botts and others, Commissioners of the city. To review judgment dismissing the suit, plaintiff brings error.

Affirmed.

J. W Kriger and J. F. Sanford, both of Colorado Springs, for plaintiff in error.

J. L. Bennett, City Atty., and Victor W Hungerford, both of Colorado Springs, for defendants in error.

ALLEN J.

This is a suit to enjoin the city of Colorado Springs and the officers thereof from issuing bonds and advertising for and letting contracts for paving certain streets, pursuant to a special election held September 8, 1920, in accordance with an ordinance passed August 4, 1920.

The trial court sustained a demurrer to the amended complaint. The plaintiff electing to stand on the complaint, the suit was dismissed, and he brings the cause here on writ of error.

The principal question presented by the record is whether the city had the right to hold the special election. The plaintiff in error contends that there is a 'total absence of any provision of the Constitution and the city charter authorizing the special election.'

The provisions of section 6 of article 20 of the Constitution of Colorado are broad enough to authorize the defendant city to pass the ordinance and hold the special election involved in this case, or to sustain any charter provision under which the city could have acted.

Section 2(d) of article 1 of the charter of Colorado Springs provides that the city 'shall have power to issue bonds upon the vote of the taxpaying electors, at any special or general election, in any amount necessary to carry out any of said powers or purposes,' which the city has or may carry out. Among the powers enumerated in a preceding part of that section is included the right to 'construct' or 'add to * * * any public works or ways.' This language is broad enough to include paving a street. The term 'public works' may include works either of construction or adaptation undertaken to subserve some purpose of public convenience. Black's Law Dict. 1231. In Siebert v. Cavender, 3 Mo.App. 421, 426, under a charter provision that 'the council shall have no power directly to contract for any public work,' the term 'public work' was held to include the paving of streets.

Section 2(f) of article 1 of the charter provides that the city shall have all the powers which 'by or pursuant to the Constitution of this state have been or could be granted to or exercised by any city of the first class.'

The constitutional and charter provisions above cited authorize the ordinance and the special election in question, and we conclude that the city is given full power to call special elections for voting for the issuance of all kinds of municipal obligations for...