Mayer v. City of Shakopee
| Decision Date | 24 February 1911 |
| Docket Number | 17,010 - (263) |
| Citation | 130 N.W. 77,114 Minn. 80 |
| Parties | LEONARD MAYER and Others v. CITY OF SHAKOPEE and Others |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Leonard Mayer and each of some fifty others filed separate objections in the office of the city recorder of Shakopee to proposed assessments for the cost of construction of the sewers in district No. 1 of the city of Shakopee, and appealed from the assessments levied by the city council to the district court for Scott county. The appeals were heard together upon stipulated facts by Morrison, J., who made findings and ordered judgment in favor of the city. From the findings, order for judgment and judgment, the objectors appealed. Affirmed.
Local assessments -- act constitutional.
Chapter 312, Laws 1903, which delegates to cities of the fourth class the power to establish sewer districts, is not unconstitutional because it requires that each lot or tract of land within the district shall be assessed for the cost of the improvements, in the ratio of area in square feet to the total assessable area of the district.
Sewer districts.
By the provisions of chapter 312, Laws 1903, in establishing sewer districts and sewers therein, the common council is required to exercise its judgment, so as to include within the district such real estate as will be benefited by the improvement, and to apportion the cost thereof on all of the property according to the benefits.
Action of common council sustained.
In the establishment of a sewer district and sewers therein by the common council of the city of Shakopee, the evidence is not sufficient to show that the council proceeded upon an illegal principle, applied a wrong rule of law, or acted upon a demonstrable mistake of fact.
Francis Cadwell and Julius A. Coller, for appellants.
E Southworth and O'Brien, Young & Stone, for respondents.
On September 20, 1909, the common council of the city of Shakopee, a city of about two thousand inhabitants, passed an ordinance "for the establishment and creation of sewer district No. 1, and for the laying out and construction of certain sewers within the limits of the city of Shakopee." The district was of irregular form, and included the south half of blocks 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and the north half of blocks 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33 fronting on Second street, which ran from east to west, and the south half of block 30, all of blocks 49 and 52 between Lewis and Holmes streets, the easterly two lots in the south half of block 31, the easterly four lots in block 48, the easterly half of the courthouse block, the westerly two lots of the south half of block 29, and the westerly four lots of block 50 and of block 55. The sewer was established, connected with a general sewer at Second and Spencer street, and was laid along the middle of Second street to Scott street. At right angles to this the sewer was laid on Holmes street, with a stub of one hundred fifty feet to the east on Fourth street. Another branch was laid on Lewis street, at right angles to the Second street line, to Holmes street, with a stub of one hundred eighty feet to the west on Third street. The result was that all lots practically fronted on the sewer, except lots 2 and 3 in blocks 30, lots 2, 3, and 9 in block 49, lots 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 in block 25, lot 2 in block 29, lots 2 and 6 in block 50 and lots 2 and 9 in block 55. Between each of these lots and the street carrying the sewer one lot sixty feet in width intervened. One lot was one hundred twenty feet distant. The intervening lot lay lengthwise with the sewer street, with the result that, if each of these inside lots were improved independently of the intervening one, the cost of reaching the sewer would be increased. The owners of the lots just described and the owners of the lots fronting or bordering on the sewer streets objected to the assessment, on the ground that the law under which the assessment was made was unconstitutional, and that, as made, the improvement was of no benefit to the property.
1. Chapter 312, p. 544, Laws 1903, confers upon the city council of any city of the fourth class the power to maintain a general system of sewers, to create sewer districts, and to change, diminish, or enlarge the boundaries thereof from time to time. General sewers are defined as outlets for districts. "District sewers shall be the designation of all main sewers laid for the immediate draining of a particular sewer district." The cost of constructing general sewers is to be paid out of the general revenue fund, if the sewer fund is not sufficient. There are provisions for joint sewer districts and lateral sewers, designed to connect district sewers with a general sewer or outlet, and "sewer districts shall be, wherever practicable, laid out to include any particular portion of the city which may be drained entirely by itself or which may be first drained by itself and then through connection with a general sewer."
The cost of constructing district sewers is provided for as follows: "The cost of constructing every district sewer may be assessed against all the land in the sewer district subject to assessment for local improvements, without regard to cash valuation, and each lot, piece or parcel of land in the district so subjected to assessment shall be assessed in the ratio of the square feet area to the total assessable area of the whole sewer district."
The constitutionality of this act must be tested...
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