15 Kan. 126 | Kan. | 1875
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Plaintiffs in error, plaintiffs below, brought their action in the district court of Douglas county, seeking to restrain the defendants from selling their property for the non-payment of certain special taxes, and obtained, without notice, a temporary injunction. Subsequently upon motion the injunction was dissolved, and this ruling is the matter brought here for review. Two or three important questions-are presented. One, and perhaps the most important, is this: The tax in dispute was for the pavement of Massachusetts street in the city of Lawrence with the Wyckoff pavement. It is insisted that this pavement, being covered by a patent, excludes competition, and that therefore the city which was by law obliged to let all contracts to the lowest bidder, had no power to let a contract for such an improvement. The right of a city to avail itself of patented inventions in the improvement of its streets, etc., where the law required the letting of contracts to the lowest bidder, has been before the courts of several states, and the adjudications thereon are not uniform. In Wisconsin, California and Louisiana, the right has been denied; while in Michigan and New York it has
Another important question is, as to the power to pay and to contract to pay for such improvements in bonds. The
“The assessments (those like the one in question) shall be known as special assessments for improvements/ and except as hereinafter provided shall be levied and collected as one tax. * *• * But the mayor and council shall have power to issue the bonds o'f the city for the costs of paving, * * * to be made payable as follows: one-third of the aggregate amount of such bonds of any issue in one year; * * * and for the payment of said bonds assessments shall be made in each year,” etc. Laws of 1871, p. 149, §17.
Now the purpose and scope of this enactment was to grant authority to a city to distribute over three years the burden of street improvements. That being the obvious purpose, it is both fair and legal that the city should contract with reference to this authorized mode of payment. It is just to the lot-owners, that they may know whether to encourage or ob
It is understood that the same questions are involved in the case of McCurdy v. The City of Lawrence, and therefore the same judgment must be entered in that case.