5 Wash. 452 | Wash. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
On the 15th day of May, 1891, the city of Anacortes was duly incorporated under the general laws of the state and became a city of the third class. On July 1st following, the city council, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of taxable property within the corporate limits of said city, caused W. Gr. Bear'd, the duly elected and qualified city assessor of said city, and also the duly appointed and qualified deputy county assessor, to return to the council the total amount of taxable property within the corporate limits of said city, according to the valuation of such property on the assessment roll for the county for the then current year. Thereafter said Beard certified to-the council the total amount of said taxable property so ascertained by him to be $5,120,000. On the 6th day of July the city council, by ordinance duly passed and published, accepted and approved of the valuation so returned and ascertained, and declared that the true value of all the property within the limits of said city, for city purposes, was the said sum of $5,120,000.
Between the date of the incorporation of the city and the date when such valuation was ascertained and declared, the city incurred indebtedness to the amount of $84.50, and between said last date and the 31st day of May, 1892, it
The plaintiff brought this action to enjoin the city from paying any of said warrants, and the question presented to us for consideration is as to whether or not the warrants issued under the circumstances above set out were valid obligations as against the city.
It is contended upon the part of the plaintiff that until there had been an ascertainment of the value of the taxable property within the city, as shown by the regular assessment roll for city purposes, the city could incur no indebtedness; that the constitution prohibited the city from incurring an indebtedness in excess of one and one-half per cent, of the valuation of the taxable property so ascertained, and that until such valuation was made to appear, there was nothing to show what indebtedness the city ’could legally incur, and that, for that reason, it could incur none at all. It is further contended in his behalf that the attempted ascertainment of the valuation of the taxable property in 1891, as above stated, was entirely ineffectual for the purpose of establishing the data upon which the one and one-half per cent, of indebtedness could be estimated.
W e are unable to agree with either of these contentions. In our opinion, the provision of the constitution as to the amount of indebtedness which may be legally incurred by a city is a limitation upon the powers thereof, and not a grant of the right to incur indebtedness. Without this provision of the constitution, it would have been competent
The conclusion to which we have come as to this question would make it unnecessary for us to discuss the other question to determine the validity of the great bulk of the warrants in question, but since the total amount of such indebtedness exceeds one and one-half per cent, of the total valuation as shown by the assessment roll for city purposes, it would follow that a portion of the same would be void unless the valuation of the property on July 6, 1891, is held to be effectual as a proper basis upon which to estimate the percentage to determine whether or not the limitation of the constitution has been exceeded. Under the constitutional provision, the assessment roll of the county is made the basis for ascertaining the valuation of taxable property for the purposes of the limitation therein established. To this general provision is added a proviso by which the assessment roll for city purposes is made such basis in cities. At the time the property was valued and
Under the facts above stated, the city council proceeded in what seems to us to have been a proper manner to ascertain the total valuation of the property within the city limits, as shown by the last assessment roll of the county, and duly ascertained and declared the same. And until a regular assessment for city purposes had been made, we think that the valuation thus established must be held to
What we have said above shows that, in our opinion, all of the warrants issued prior to the 31st day of May, 1892, were valid and binding obligations against the city. It is claimed, however, that as to the 17,707.65, issued after said 31st day of May, 1892, the basis for the limitation had, at the date of their issue, been duly established at the sum of §2,961,816; and that, as the amount of outstanding warrants at. the date these were issued was in excess of one and one-half per cent, of said last named sum, these warrants came within the constitutional provision, and being issued in excess of the percentage therein established, were void. This would doubtless be true if the indebtedness upon which these warrants were issued had been incurred subsequent to said May 31st, but such was not the fact. The liability was incurred when the total amount of the indebtedness, including the amount of such liability, was within the one and one-half per cent, named in the constitution. Such being the fact, the indebtedness when incurred was valid and binding, and warrants to evidence the same could properly be issued, even although at the time of such issue they constituted a part of an excess as estimated under the valuation then effective.
The decree of the superior court must be affirmed.