Kiley v. Cranor

• Decision Date: 28 February 1873
• Citation: 51 Mo. 541
• Parties: FLORENCE KILEY Respondent, v. MANLOVE CRANOR, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

51 Mo. 541

FLORENCE KILEY Respondent,

v.MANLOVE CRANOR, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

February Term, 1873.

Appeal from Buchanan Court of Common Pleas.

Allen H. Vories, for Appellant.

F. Van Waters and Everett & Reed, for Respondent.

WAGNER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff on certified special tax bills, to recover for macadamizing one of the streets of the City of St. Joseph, opposite to and adjoining the property of the defendant. In the court below plaintiff had judgment, and the defendant appealed to this court.

The contract was made by the city engineer with the plaintiff for doing the work, and the proceeding was had in accordance with the fifth section of an act amending the charter of the City of St. Joseph, approved Feb. 8th, 1865.

The 4th section of the amendatory act authorizes the mayor and city council to order the paving, macadamizing, &c., of the streets; and the 5th section provides that whenever any of the above mentioned work shall have been fully completed under the authority of an ordinance, the city engineer or other officer having charge of the work shall compute the cost thereof, and assess it as a special tax against the adjoining property fronting upon the work done, and that each lot of ground shall be charged in proportion to its frontage with the cost of construction in such manner as the engineer shall deem just and equitable.

The engineer is then authorized to make out a certified bill of the assessment against each lot of ground chargeable with the work done in the name of the owner thereof, and deliver the same to the contractor of the work who is empowered to proceed to collect the same by ordinary process of law in his own name, and the bills are made prima facie evidence that the work and materials charged therein have been furnished, and of the liability of the person therein named as the owner of such property.

It is urged as an objection to the validity of the tax bills, that the whole work was not fully completed when they were issued and certified by the engineer. In the case of the City of St. Louis to use of McGrath vs. Clemens, (49 Mo., 552,) in construing a law which is literally the same as the section above referred to, we held that special tax bills founded on assessment could not be enforced till the contract for the improvement was fully completed. And that the term “work” mentioned in the provision of the charter was meant to include all the work named in this contract. The reason for such a construction is, I think entirely satisfactory. It is supposed that the work done is a benefit, which amounts to a compensation for the special burden imposed. The grading of a street, or...