146 Iowa 690 | Iowa | 1910
The city was at one time the owner of lot eighteen, block nine, in the corporate limits of the town, and the defendant had an option on lots nineteen and twenty, in said block. Twenty was a corner lot, and it was practically excavated so as to accommodate the basement of a building. Lot eighteen is an inside lot, and the difference in the value of the two lots was between $700 and $1,000. The city was contemplating the building of a city hall and fire station, and, desirous of having a corner lot, it entered into negotiations with the defendant, it being satisfied with an inside lot, for an exchange of lot eighteen for lot • twenty. These resulted in an agreement whereby an exchange was to be made, the city to turn, over its lot for the one owned by the defendant, to pay the defendant $300 in cash, and to erect at its own expense the partition wall which was necessary to be constructed when the buildings were erected. The city was also to afford access to the gallery of the armory building from a stairway in the city building. An architect was engaged who drew plans for the city build
Acts, election, ordinances and resolutions legalized: That the acts of the town council of the incorporated town of Ida Grove, Iowa, and the election held by said town on the Ith day of August, 1905, and all acts and things done in connection therewith, and all the official acts of the officers of said town, and all motions, ordinances and resolutions passed by the council of said town, not in contravention with the laws of the state of Iowa, with relation to the erection of a city hall and fire station within said town, the letting of a contract for the erection of same, and submitting of the proposition to the vote of the people; the levy of a three mill tax for the purpose of providing funds for the payment of the same are hereby legalized and declared to be valid and binding, the same as though the law in all respects had been complied with. Chapter 235, Acts 31st General Assembly.
Bearing upon the question of ratification and estoppel on the part of the city, we quote the following from Kagy v. Ind. Dist., 117 Iowa, 694: “There is nothing morally wrong or inequitable in saying to a school district that
II. Some of the instructions are complained of. They ■are numbered nine and ten, and read as follows:
5. Same: instructions. “If you find by a preponderance of the evidence that at the time of the exchange of lots eighteen and twenty that the understanding and agreement was entered into between plaintiff and defendant, by the terms of which defendant was to receive in consideration of a deed for lot twenty a deed to lot eighteen, $300 in cash, and that plaintiff .was to build and maintain the party wall in question, the plaintiff can not recover, and your verdict 'will be for the defendant.
“If you find by a preponderance of the evidence that prior to the transfer and exchange of deeds in question defendant had an option on lots nineteen and twenty and that plaintiff and defendant entered into an agreement under the terms as claimed by defendant, and that, acting thereon defendant closed its option and transferred the deeds in question, the .plaintiff can not recover, and under such circumstances your verdict will be for the défendant.”
As applied to the peculiar facts of the case, these instructions are not erroneous.
We discover no prejudicial error in the record, and the judgment must be, and it is, affirmed.