Kneebs v. Sioux City
| Decision Date | 16 October 1912 |
| Citation | 137 N.W. 944,156 Iowa 607 |
| Parties | FREDERICK KNEEBS, Appellee, v. CITY OF SIOUX CITY, et al., Appellants |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Woodbury District Court.--HON. F. R. GAYNOR, JUDGE.
A writ of certiorari was issued by the district court to the defendants. Judgment was entered annulling an assessment of plaintiff's property. Defendants appeal.
Affirmed.
F. E Gill, for appellants.
E. J Stason, for appellee.
Lot 1 of block 33 in Sioux City is forty-two feet wide and one hundred and fifty feet long, extending east and west, with Riverside avenue on the north. A strip of this lot along said avenue, sixteen feet wide at one end and ten feet wide at the other, belonged to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, and was used by it as a part of its right of way. The remainder of the lot was the property of the plaintiff, and he had never had any interest in that portion owned by the railway company.
In March, 1911, the city council of Sioux City adopted the necessary resolution of necessity, and by proceedings, the regularity of which is not questioned, caused Riverside avenue to be paved and the portion of the lot owned by the plaintiff to be assessed for the proportionate share of the cost. The plaintiff contends that his portion of the lot, as it did not abut the street, was not subject to assessment for the costs of the improvement, while the defendants insist that the lot is a unit for assessment purposes, and that, even though the title to separate portions be owned by different persons, all of it within one hundred and fifty feet of the street line is assessable for the proportionate share of the cost of the pavement.
This is the only question presented, and its determination necessarily depends upon the construction given the statutes bearing on the subject. These, as argued by counsel for defendant, are directed to the property rather than the owners. But it does not follow from this that a lot or parcel of ground once abutting on a street continues to be a unit for assessment purposes, notwithstanding subdivisions which may subsequently occur in good faith and in the ordinary uses of the property. It is the property abutting the street, and not necessarily the lot or parcel of land according to some plat, which is made subject to assessment. Section 792 of the Code declares that "cities shall have the power . . . to assess the cost on abutting property." Section 816 provides that the lien for special taxes "for street improvements in case of abutting property shall not cover to exceed one hundred and fifty feet in depth from the abutting line." Section 817: "The cost of any street improvement at the intersection of a street . . . may be assessed against the property abutting or fronting upon that portion of the street, highway, avenue or alley so improved in proportion to the linear front feet fronting or abutting upon such improvement." Section 818 provides that the cost of making or reconstructing street improvements is a "special tax against the property abutting thereon in proportion to the number of linear front feet of each parcel so abutting." Section 820: "When the making of any street improvement . . . shall have been completed . . . the council shall ascertain what portion of such costs shall be . . . assessable upon abutting property." Section 821 provides that "in assessing that part of the cost of the making or reconstructing of any street improvement . . . which is assessable against lots or parcels of ground abutting thereon . . . the council . . . shall cause to be prepared a plat of the street, showing the separate lots or parcels of ground, or specified portions thereof, subject to assessment for such improvement, the names of the owners thereof, as far as practicable, and the amount to be assessed against each lot or parcel of ground." Section 825 directs that "the special assessments made in said plat and schedule, as corrected and approved, shall be levied at one time . . . against the property abutting on such street improvement."
The terms "property" in its appropriate sense means that dominion or definite right of user and...
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