292 N.W. 777 | Minn. | 1940
Petitioner is an independent school district organized as a municipal corporation under the general statutes. It owns the land upon which there is a school building used for school purposes in the respondent city. The area of the school district comprehends that of the city and other lands.
The city is a city of the fourth class and has a home rule charter. A sewerage system was constructed by the city and was to be paid by special assessment against benefited property. The parties state, and we accept the statement as a fact, that the city's authority to construct the sewerage system and assess benefited property was in virtue of the general statutes (1 Mason Minn. St. 1927, §§ 1880-1906) and not its charter. *31
The sewerage system cost in excess of $350,000 for which bonds of the city were issued. The cost of the project was assessed against benefited property under 1 Mason Minn. St. 1927, § 1885. The assessments were payable in ten equal successive annual installments. The statute provides that installments of assessments not paid when due shall be certified to the county auditor to be included in, collected, and payment thereof enforced "in the manner provided for the enforcement and collection of the state and county taxes." § 1891. No personal liability is in terms imposed on the landowner for the assessment. No other remedy for collection and enforcement of the same is authorized. Petitioner's property was assessed the same as other benefited property. It paid some of the installments. Then it brought the present action to compel the cancellation of all unpaid installments and certain tax judgments against its land based on certain unpaid installments.
The respondent First Trust Company of St. Paul is the trustee of certain bondholders. Other respondents, including the city, appeared below, but are taking no part in this appeal. The trustee opposed the granting of the writ on numerous grounds. Petitioner moved to strike from the return as sham and frivolous certain allegations. These we summarize. Those claimed to be sham relate to the trustee's claim that petitioner agreed with the city to pay the amount of any assessment against its property as a consideration or inducement to the city to construct the sewer. Those claimed to be frivolous consist of numerous allegations to the effect that the sewer benefits petitioner's property, it having connected its private drain therewith; that the city levied the assessment against all benefited property, including petitioner's, with notice to and acquiescence of all the owners; that the bonds were issued on the faith of and to be paid out of such assessments and particularly in reliance upon the assessability of petitioner's property and the collectibility of the assessment made against it; that, although the unpaid installments of the assessment were ordered abated in due proceedings and in the form required by law by the officials possessing *32 the power, the abatement of the installments was void as being without authority in law and in breach of the city's undertaking with the bondholders to pay the bonds with funds raised by the assessment; that the city had authority under the statutes to levy the assessment against petitioner's land; and that the petitioner is liable quasi ex contractu, if not by assessment, for benefits received by reason of the construction of the sewer and petitioner's having made use of it by connecting its drain therewith. The motion to strike was granted by the order from which the appeal was taken.
The questions raised by the appeal will be disposed of without further statement of the evolution of the issues.
1. Petitioner's claim that the allegations of the return that prior to construction of the sewer petitioner entered into a contract with the city whereby it agreed to pay the assessment that was made against its property were sham was supported by a showing that its records contained no record of such a contract and of an affidavit by its clerk, who had personal knowledge of all its transactions during all the times here involved, that he personally knew that no such contract had been made. This showing stood unanswered and uncontradicted.
A pleading is sham if it is false in fact. 5 Dunnell, Minn. Dig. (2 ed. Supps.) § 7657. The falsity of a pleading may be established by affidavit. Bank of Richards v. Sheasgreen,
What we have said is not to be taken as an intimation whether or not the contract claimed to have been made was valid. *33
The contract and all claims based on it are therefore entirely eliminated from the case.
2. The parts of the answer claimed to be frivolous, other than the claim of liability on quasi contract, raise only the question whether the statutes authorized the city to assess petitioner's land for the improvement. The statute under which the assessment was levied, § 1885, reads as follows: "The cost of constructing any district sewer * * * may be assessed against all the land in the sewer district subject to assessments for local improvements." It is conceded that the petitioner's land is in the sewer district. No claim is made that the land is exempt from assessment, for local improvements in virtue of the provisions of Minn. Const. art.
That petitioner's land may not be assessed for the sewer is settled by our decision in State v. Board of Education,
It is clear that petitioner's land is not subject to the assessment. The allegations of the answer do not supply the deficiency of statutory authorization requisite to assessment. The insufficiency of those parts of the answer appears as a matter of law upon their face. An answer is frivolous where it appears from bare inspection to be lacking in legal sufficiency and which in any view of the facts pleaded does not present a defense. First Nat. Bank v. Lang,
3. The claim of quasi contractual liability presupposes the absence of a contract in fact, express or implied. Where there is no contract in fact the use of the term contract to describe the obligation is pure fiction, which was necessary under the early law to bend the transaction to the form of action. It is sometimes still used, but without justification. Fargo Foundry Co. v. Village of Callaway,
Rights quasi ex contractu are in personam and are enforced by actions in personam. Downs v. Finnegan,
Quasi contractual obligation is imposed by law. Certain fact situations are held to give rise to the obligation. For example, where one has received or used something for which it is just that he should compensate another he is liablequasi ex contractu. The duty is to refund or make restitution. In Todd v. Bettingen,
Here there is entire absence of duty on the part of petitioner to make restitution or pay. The statute treats the benefits as having been conferred on the land, not the owner. Hence the owner cannot be regarded as having received the benefits. The liability for the benefits is imposed on the land, not the owner. All the proceedings for levying, collecting, and enforcing payment of the assessment are in rem
against the land and are not *36 in personam against the owner. The liability thus imposed and the remedy thus provided for its enforcement are exclusive. State v. Board of Education,
A landowner is not liable quasi ex contractu for benefits to his land from an improvement where the assessment levied against his land for the improvement is invalid. In City of Boston v. Shaw,
The case of First Nat. Bank v. Village of Goodhue,
We do not deem it necessary to consider at length the claim that the benefit to the land is a benefit to the owner. The fallacy with the argument is that it assumes that the benefits were to the landowner. The statute settles the matter by treating the benefits as to the land and not to the owner. But that aside, the retention of a benefit, while it may result in enrichment, does not always result in unjust enrichment. That depends on the circumstances of the case. Where the retention is not unjust there is no duty to make restitution or pay, as where a party is entitled to a benefit without duty to pay for it in virtue of a rule of property, Mehl v. Norton,
Treating as we do the direction in the order as an irregular judgment, our decision is that the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed. *38