144 Iowa 187 | Iowa | 1909
The defendant city is organized and operating under a special charter, which gives it power to levy and collect taxes and special assessments under-provisions applicable to it alone, or to it and to other special charter cities. See Acts 2d General Assembly, 1848-49, chapter 3; Acts 4th General Assembly, 1852-53, chapter- 77; Acts 5th General Assembly, 1856, chapter 17 (extra session) ; Code, section 973; Acts 23d General Assembly, 1890, chapter 14; Acts 25th General Assembly, 1894, chapter 7. In the'year 1895 defendant city ordered that Eleventh Street in said city, upon which plaintiff’s property abuts, be paved, guttered and curbed. The contract for doing the work was let to defendants Cameron & Mc-Manus, and the improvement was made during the winter of 1895-96. On March 2, 1896, the city assessed the cost of
In March of the year 1903- Cameron & McManus brought an action in' equity to foreclose their paving certificates and the assessments represented thereby, and to sell the property in satisfaction thereof. Fisk was, of course, made a defendant, and he appeared and demurred to the petition. This demurrer was sustained, and thereupon and at the same time plaintiffs in that action dismissed their petition without prejudice. Thereafter Cameron & McManus, holders of the certificates, at the regular annual city tax sale had the property against which the special taxes had been levied sold for these taxes and they became the purchasers of the property at such sale. Owing to a misunderstanding between them and their attorneys certificates of purchase did not issue, and had not been issued when plaintiff commenced this suit to enjoin the issuance of the same. While the suit was pending, and on October 16, 1906, a certificate of purchase issued to Cameron & McManus pursuant to- the sale, and thereupon plaintiff amended his petition, attacking said certificates for reasons hereinafter stated.
The nature of this action has already been stated, and plaintiff upon this appeal contends that the judgment dismissing his petition should be reversed for the reasons (1) that Cameron & McManus, in bringing their suit to foreclose their assessment certificates, elected their remedy, and could not thereafter proceed to collect the assessments by sale of the property against which they had been levied; (2) that the judgment upon the demurrer to- their petition in that action was final and conclusive and determinative of their right to recover the amount of the assessment in any form of action; (3) that claim for the special as
We have gone over the propositions involved with care, and find no error in the decree. It is therefore affirmed.