Goldsmith v. George Prendergast Const Co

• Decision Date: 01 March 1920
• Docket Number: No. 127,127
• Citation: 64 L.Ed. 427,40 S.Ct. 273,252 U.S. 12
• Parties: GOLDSMITH et al. v. GEORGE G. PRENDERGAST CONST. CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

252 U.S. 12

40 S.Ct. 273

64 L.Ed. 427

GOLDSMITH et al.

v GEORGE G. PRENDERGAST CONST. CO.

No. 127.

Argued Jan. 13 and 14, 1920.

Decided March 1, 1920.

Mr. David Goldsmith, of St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiffs in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 12-14 intentionally omitted] Mr. Hickman P. Rodgers, of St. Louis, Mo., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice DAY delivered the opinion of the Court.

Suit was brought in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis by the Construction Company to recover upon a special tax-bill issued by the city of St. Louis for the construction of the sewer in what is known as Manchester Road sewer district No. 111, city of St. Louis. The Construction Company recovered a judgment on the tax-bills against the plaintiffs in error, who were owners of abutting property. Upon appeal to the Supreme Court of Missouri the judgment below was affirmed upon hearing and rehearing. Prendergast Const. Co. v. Goldsmith, 273 Mo. 184, 201 S. W. 354.

The record discloses that the sewer, for the construction of which the assessment was made, was constructed in a certain boulevard known as Kingshighway Boulevard. On the east of this boulevard, and fronting on the same for a considerable distance, is a tract belonging to the city, and known as Tower Grove Park; this property was not assessed for the building of the sewer. This omission is alleged to be of such an arbitrary and discriminatory character as to render the ordinance making the assessment void as a deprivation of federal constitutional rights secured to the plaintiffs in error by the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The circuit court made findings of fact in which it found that there was no evidence tht the municipal assembly of the city of St. Louis, in passing the ordinances in question, was actuated by motives of fraud or oppression; that such motives, if any, must be inferred solely from the failure to incorporate parcels or tracts of land in the sewer district, the topography of which might render it necessary or expedient to then, or thereafter, drain the water or sewage therefrom into the sewer. The court recites the nature of the title of the tract known as Tower Grove Park.

It appears that the park had been conveyed to the city, the grantor reserving therefrom a strip 200 feet wide, surrounding the same. The court found that the western front of the tract, thus conveyed to the city included the western gate or entrance of the park and the strip of 200 feet in width, surrounding the park proper, and embraced a total frontage along Kingshighway of about 1470 feet, and that none of the property included within Tower Grove park and the strip of 200 feet in width, reserved for a residence property, was included within the taxing district for such sewer construction. The court also finds that with the exception of an area composing some 300 feet, each way, located at the southwestern corner of the Park, the western part of the park for a distance of some 600 feet east of Kingshighway is of an elevation higher than Kingshighway between Arsenal street and Magnolia avenue, and the natural drainage thereof is in the main westwardly towards Kingshighway and that before the building of the sewer in question surface water and hydrants drained from said part of the park through drains and gutters under said street and sidewalk to a point west of Kingshighway. That whatever drains for surface and hydrant water existed in said western and north western portion of the park led into that section of the sewer in question, situated in Kingshighway adjoining the park; but the court finds that it is unable to determine from the evidence as to when such...