7 Wash. 226 | Wash. | 1893
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This controversy grew out of an assumption on the part of the defendant, city of Spokane Falls, to exercise authority and jurisdiction in municipal matters over certain territory claimed by the plaintiff, the town of Denver, to be embraced within its corporate limits. The defendants claimed that the disputed territory was legally annexed to the city of Spokane Falls, and became a part thereof, by virtue of an election held for that purpose on July 26, 1890, in conformity with the provisions of §9 of the act of March 27, 1890 (Laws, p. 136), entitled “An act providing for the organization, classification, incorporation and government of municipal corporations, and declaring an emergency, ’ ’ and that the inhabitants of the alleged town of Denver ever since have been, and still are, amenable to the same laws and ordinances by which the remain
The learned counsel for the appellants strenuously insist that these allegations were not denied in the answer, and must, therefore, be deemed admitted. The point made is that the attempted denial is bad in form, and, if valid at all, amounts to a plea of the general issues only, and that such a plea admits the corporate existence of the plaintiff. The particular part of the answer thus objected to is as follows:
“Now come the above named defendants, and for their answer to the third amended and supplemental complaint of the plaintiffs herein say that they deny each and every allegation, matter and thing in said complaint contained, except those hereinafter admitted. ’ ’
It must be admitted that this form of pleading is objectionable, and not to be commended. It is just as easy for a defendant to deny positively any allegation of the complaint controverted by him, and thus conform strictly to the requirements of the code, as it is to “say” he denies. “But such a form is nevertheless a denial, and, if not objected to at the proper time, will be sustained.” Maxwell, Code PI. 390. While the denial in this case is not so specific as it should have been, yet, inasmuch as the defendants were not required by motion in the court below to make it more specific, we do not think we ought now to declare it insufficient, especially as it appears from the answer as a whole just what allegations of the complaint are denied and what are admitted. See Boone, Code PL, §60, and cases cited; Maxwell, Code PL, p. 388.
But, as before intimated, it is claimed by counsel for the plaintiffs that, even if the said allegations of the answer constitute a denial in any sense, still they are not sufficient to require proof of the corporate existence of the town of
But the respondents’ counsel contends that the complaint shows on its face that the alleged town of Denver never was incorporated under any law of the Territory or State of Washington, and that for that reason the complaint fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. And the argument is, that the act of February 2, 1888, under which it first attempted to organize, was void, and so declared by this court in Territory v. Stewart, 1 Wash. 98
The following are the respective provisions of the constitution above mentioned:
‘ ‘ The legislature is prohibited from enacting any private or special laws in the following cases: (6) For granting corporate powers or privileges. . . . Corporations for municipal purposes shall not be created by special laws; but the legislature, by general laws, shall provide for the incorporation, organization and classification in proportion to population, of cities and towns, which laws may be altered, amended or repealed,” etc.
And it is contended that § 6 of the act of March 27, 1890 (Laws, 1889 — 90, p. 135), is inimical to those constitutional provisions, and especially the latter, for the reason that the legislature thereby attempted to confer upon certain communities which had previously undertaken to incorporate under an invalid law the right to incorporate under the statute without reference to population, but solely by reason' of their peculiar condition. As to such communities, is this a general or a special law? It is claimed by the learned counsel for the appellants that it is general, because it applies to all communities in the state similarly situated. But we think that cannot be said to be the exclusive test. If the operation and effect of a statute is necessarily limited to a particular class or number of persons or things, it is as much a special statute, whatever may be its form, as it would be if it applied to but one person or thing only. Now, the legislature found certain aggregations of citizens, in different localities throughout the state, assuming, without warrant of law, to be municipal corporations, and, in order to relieve them from the embarrassment consequent upon the condition in which they had placed themselves, enacted the section of the statute in question. Would the character of the pro
The judgment appealed from is affirmed. •
Dunbar, C. J., and Scott, Stiles and Hoyt, JJ., concur.