30 Wash. 219 | Wash. | 1902
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is an original application to this court for a writ of certiorari to review a judgment of the superi- or court of King county in a condemnation proceeding instituted by the Seattle Electric Company. It appears from the record that the relator, Charles B. Smith, is the owner of lots 5 and 6, except the west 27 feet thereof, and lots 1, 2, 7, and 8 of block 21, of D. S. Maynard’s plat of the town (now city) of Seattle, and that these lots abut upon Eourth avenue South, a dedicated and platted street of said city. This avenue has never been improved, and cannot be used for the purposes of a public street in front of the relator’s lots, by reason of the fact that it is there merely a vacant strip of tide land, 66 feet in width, over which the tide regularly and freely ebbs and flows. The Seattle Electric Company is a corporation authorized by law to construct and operate electric and other railroads in the state of
Thereafter the company, on December 20, 1901, instituted a proceeding under the statute relating to eminent domain for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of compensation that should be made to the relator herein on account of the building of the railway line and roadway which the company was constructing, and which the city required it to construct, in accordance with the provisions of ordinance 1015. The Tucker-Hanford Company was made a party to the condemnation proceeding for the reason that it owns a part of lots 5 and 6, above described; but it has not contested the condemnation, and is not a party to this application for certiorari. A hearing was had in the superior court, after notice to all parties interested, on
It is insisted on behalf of the respondent that, inasmuch as there is no statute providing for an appeal from the judgment of the superior court determining the question of public use and necessity, the constitutional and statutory provisions are sufficiently complied with if that question is judicially determined by the superior court, and that such determination may not be reviewed by certiorari. But this same point was made in the recent case of Seattle & M. Ry. Co. v. Bellingham Bay & E. R. R. Co., 29 Wash. 491 (69 Pac. 1107), and was there decided adversely to the contention of the respondent after a careful consideration by this court. In that case the superior court adjudged that the use for which the property in question was sought to be condemned was a public use, and that the public interest required the prosecution of the enterprise, and the respond
“It having been adjudged that no review on appeal of the question of public use and interest involved in the exercise of eminent domain proceedings now exists, it follows that the writ of certiorari may be issued to bring up the record for review in the proceedings for appropriation of the right of way through petitioner’s real property. The application for the writ states sufficient cause for its issuance.”
That case is directly in point here, and is decisive of the question of the power and authority of this court to review the decision of the superior court in condemnation proceedings upon the subject of public use and necessity. It appears clear to us that the petition for condemnation stated sufficient facts to constitute a cause of action, as it alleged all the facts required by the statute to be stated in such proceedings. And it is equally clear that the superior court had jurisdiction of the particular subject-matter of the proceedings, and that the petitioner therein was vested with legal capacity to prosecute said proceeding. In the year 1899 the power of eminent domain was granted to electric railway corporations by an act of the legislature. Laws 1899, p. 147. But a proviso in § 1 of said act declares “that said right of eminent domain shall not be ex
The order and judgment is affirmed, at the cost of the relator.
Beavis, O. J., and Dunbar, Fullerton and Mount, JJ., concur.