180 Iowa 62 | Iowa | 1917
The appellee brought this action in equity to enjoin the collection of a special assessment levied to pay the cost of constructing a sidewalk. Few, if any, of the material facts are in dispute. The plaintiff is a local lodge of an order commonly known as The Odd Fellows. Many years before this controversy arose, the lodge became the owner of about four acres of land. This land is within the toAvn limits, and, as we understand the record, it fronts on Iowa Street, adjoining the principal town cemetery. Having acquired the title, the lodge proceeded to plat the land (except a small strip hereinafter mentioned) into blocks, drives and alleys, for cemetery purposes. The space left between the nearest range of burial lots and the street line was 20 feet Avide. Of this Avid Hi, 16 feet was platted as a cemetery street or drive, and the remaining 4 feet, to use the language of the witnesses, Avas “throAvn into Iowa Street.” By this Ave understand that the front fence of the cemetery property was set 4 feet inside of the true line of the property OAvned by the lodge, and that the strip outside of the fence became, for all practical purposes, a part of the public street. The first sideAvalk on this side of the street was built by public subscription and laid along the fence upon this strip. When the time came to reneAV or replace the walk Avith the one involved in this litigation, the city caused it to be placed along the line of Iowa Street' as originally laid out, leaving Amcant the 4-foot strip to which Ave have referred. The premises Avere platted into ranges of burial lots and blocks parallel Avith IoAva Street, the ranges being separated by streets or drives 16 feet in
With this explanation of the situation, we will now take up the history of the proceedings leading up to the special assessment, enforcement of which is sought to be enjoined.
In the year 1906, the town council of Monona enacted a general ordinance that, where the grade of a street “has been or shall hereafter be established and the bed thereof brought to grade, there shall be constructed * * * permanent sidewalks of cement of the width as defined by ordinance and within the time as fixed by resolution of the council ordering and directing the construction of the same.”
The foregoing statement renders unnecessary any special reference to the pleadings. In so far as the issues are not made apparent from the recitation of facts here set forth, they will be made clear in discussing the legal propositions advanced by. counsel. The trial court, having heard the evidence, found for the plaintiffs generally, and defendants appeal.
If this objection be held good, we would need go no further to affirm the judgment below, but, after considerable reflection, we think it cannot be sustained. It is doubtless true, generally speaking, that a sidewalk upon a public street is a “street improvement,” and, if there were nothing in the statute indicating a different intention, we might well hold with the appellee that, in ordering the construction of such walks, the procedure prescribed in Chapter 7, Title V, of the Code must be pursued with substantial fidelity. It is manifest, however, that, in the very nature of the situation, there is practical need of distinction’s being made and recognized between the formalities to be observed and safeguards to be thrown around transactions involving large public expenditure and placing heavy burdens upon tlie public treasury or upon private property, and those minor expenditures the need of which is arising daily, or minor improvements pertaining particularly to the convenience of restricted localities. A paving project or a system of sewerage contemplates, as a rule, large cost and
Passing, then, to Chapter 7, on Avhicli appellee relies, Ave find it entitled, “Of Street Improvements, SeAvers and Special Assessments.” The title does not get us very far, but the initial section, Code Supplement, Section 792, starts with the proposition that cities have the poAver to improve any street “by grading, parking, curbing, paving, graveling, macadamizing and guttering the same * * * and to assess the costs on abutting property.” Then follows a provision, Code Section 794, giving power to provide for construction of sewers. Section 810, Code Supplement, 1913, requiring a preliminary resolution of necessity by the city council, is expressly limited to street improvements or sew
The legislative recognition of this distinction is elsewhere very apparent. For example, Chapter 7 contains a provision by which the property owner may obtain the privilege of paying his special assessment in installments, and, if the appellee’s theory be correct, it needed no additional legislation to give the same privilege to the man whose ■property was assessed for a sidewalk; yet it was found, or at least thought, necessary, in order to accomplish that purpose, to amend Chapter 6. See Code Supplement, 1913, Sections 791-b to 791-e, inclusive. Again, the distinct character of the two chapters is clearly shown in Section 779, Code Supplement, 1913, found in Chapter 6, where, after giving authority to construct permanent sidewalks and assess the cost thereof on abutting property, it adds:
“Towns shall have the power to make the street improvements provided for in chapter seven of this title, and pay for the same, or any part thereof, out of the general fund, or to assess, levy and collect special taxes for the*72 cost, or any part thereof, against the abutting property, in the manner provided in the said chapter.”
Is it not clear that the legislature believed that the procedure prescribed in Chapter 7 was not applicable to the construction of sidewalks, and that this special provision was necessary to make the manner of assessment there provided available for such an improvement?
It is said in argument that, in the case of Clifton Land Co. v. City of Des Moines, 144 Iowa 625, we held explicitly that the procedure provided for in Chapter 7 is to be followed in the construction of sidewalks; but this is a mistake. The matter of the distinction to be drawn between Chapters 6 and 7 of Title V of the Code was not there considered or passed upon. The plaintiff in that case had himself instituted the proceedings to build the walks. The city, whether by one chapter or the other of the Code, or by both chapters, had jurisdiction of the subject matter; plaintiff had invoked it, and the proceedings so instituted had resulted in the construction of the improvement; and we held him estopped to raise the objection that the city had no authority to order the improvement, and, in so far as he sought to raise objection to the manner in which the work was done, we further held that his remedy was by appeal and not by injunction.
It is enough to say, in conclusion upon this branch of the case, that, in our judgment, the appellee’s position, that the preliminary steps which the statute makes necessary to the jurisdiction of the city council to proceed with a paving improvement or the construction of a sewer must be likewise observed to authorize the construction of a sidewalk, cannot be sustained. This conclusion does not in any manner negative the idea that, while the preliminaries to the exercise of the council’s jurisdiction to order the construction of a pavement or sewer are not necessary to its jurisdiction to order a sidewalk, yet the provisions of Chap
“So far as applicable, Sections 821, 822, 823, 824, 829, and 839 * * * shall govern all special assessments made in cities and towns unless otherwise specially provided.”
The same section 'seems also to preserve the right of appeal in all cases.
“If a platted lot has been divided in actual use into two distinct tracts, one of which is separated from the street by the other, the one in the rear is not regarded as abutting on the improvement.” 1 Page & Jones’ Taxation by Assessment, Sec. 620.
In an earlier case, Smith v. City of Des Moines, 106 Iowa 590, we held that a lot separated from the street by another platted lot or strip of land could not be assessed for a street improvement even though the several lots were both owned by the same person, and in practical use constituted part of the same dooryard or lawn. The opinion in that case was written by Robinson, J., who did not agree with that view, and his entire argument is opposed to that result, but closes- with the brief but important statement that the majority .of the court was against him, and that the judgment of the trial court, which he believed to be correct, was reversed. In the Kneebs ease, a city lot had been
. Noav, that plaintiff, as the owner of the á-a.cre tract, had the right to dedicate it to use as a cemetery, no one will deny: To that end, it was entirely proper for it to plat the tract into blocks of burial lots, separated by convenient streets or driveways and alleys. And, when the land was thus platted and set apart for such use, we can conceive no good reason why, under the law to which we have already referred, the authority of the city or town, if any it has, to levy the cost of the sidewalk upon abutting property, is not " limited to that part of the property, if any there be, which borders or abuts upon the street improved. This, we think,
“The courts quite generally hold that the purchaser of a lot in a cemetery, though the deed be absolute in form, does not take any title thereto. The mere privilege or license to make interments in the lot so purchased, exclusive of all others, is all that is acquired thereunder.”
Such was not the language of the opinion. What we did say was expressly limited to a “public” cemetery, and, when thus read, shows that the distinction of which we speak was not overlooked. It would certainly be strange if the owner of land by perfect title, were he so disposed, could not plat it as a cemetery and give, sell or convey to a grantee a title as full, complete and absolute as his own. It .is said, however, that the deeds given by plaintiff were not absolute. The evidence shows, as we have before stated, that some of the conveyances to lot purchasers were made by warranty deed without any qualification, while others made use of the expression, “Subject to all rights granted by law to cemetery associations.” A search of the statute discloses no rights conferred upon cemetery associations which would have the effect to reduce the title conveyed to
III. Whether any of the lots in the plat constitute abutting property Avithin the meaning of the laAV, we are not here called upon to decide, as none-of the owners holding lots in the range of blocks nearest the street are parties to this action. Even these lots are separated from the street by a cemetery street, or drive, 1G feet wide. The sale of the lots in accordance Avith the plat doubtless operated as a dedication of the streets and alleys of such plat to the general use of the lot OAvners, if not of the public generally, as a means of access to the A-arious parts of the grounds. Between the 16-foot strip or' drive in front of the first range of blocks and the line of Iowa Street, is the strip i feet
If it shall finally be held that such property is liable to special assessment of this kind, it will then be worth while to consider just how the town or city may enforce the assessment when made. May it sell the property? Will the purchaser thereby acquire a title to the lots entitling him to deny right of burial therein and authorizing ' him to obliterate the graves, destroy the monuments there erected, disinter and remove the dead, and make use or ■ sale of the premises for residence or business purposes?
Finding then, as we do, that the right of the town to levy special assessments for the construction of sidewalks is limited to the property .abutting on tbe street so improved, and that the cemetery property owned by the plaintiff does not abut ou the street for the improvement of which the assessment is laid, the finding and conclusion of the trial court that such assessment should be held void and its enforcement be perpetually enjoined must be sustained, and the decree appealed from is therefore — Affirmed.