The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-10
OWNERS FILE PROTEST
CITY. ASSESSMENT BOARD BE.
 BEGINS IT'S WORK.
Will be in Session at City Hall each Day this Week Reassessing for
 Paving and Curbing. ~

l When the Montgomery City Board of
 Assessment convened at 10 o'clock yester-
 day morning in the office of Mayor Joseph | to reassess city property for abutting | paving and curbing a communication was received from Hon. Gordon Macdonald, legal representative of 113 property owners | protesting against the re-assessment, questioning the authority of the Board and declaring that its action would be resisted E-.r l The City Board of Assessment consists of Mayor Joseph. c. P. Hardaway, City | Clerk; and D. W. Ford. City Engineer The Board will be in session each day this week from 10 a. m. to p. m. to receive objections and to listen to com- plaints from property owners The ses- sions of the Board will be held in the ofi1ce of Mayor Joseph. The Mayor was not present yesterday. He is absent from the city. .:.
 | The re-assessments by the Board for paving and curbing are to be made under | an ordinance recently passed by the City Council acting upon the advice of Major R. E. Steiner, City Attorney. 1t Is ex- pected that the new assessment DOCKS will be completed next week. The following is the communication from MT. Macdonald. received by the | Board:
 1 ITO E. B. Joseph, Mayor; c. F. Harda- way, Clerk City Council; David Fora, City Engineer, Board of Assessment. etc..
 "Gentlemen-You have published above | your signatures a notice to owners Of real estate in this city, abutting on which | street and sidewalk paving and curbing and etc., has been done by the city. under mad H. preme Court of Alabama, in the case of the City Council of Montgomery vs I. Gardner Poster. that you would proceed, on this day, to ,re-assesse such property | for the cost of such paying and etc.. un- | der the supposed authority of an alleged | ordinance lately adopted by the City | Council.
 Under an agreement made between the | ( y Council acting through the City At | torney, and the various parties resisting | the former assessments, 1t was stipulated | that all the eases then pending should | abide by the decision in Fosters case. 1 The ultimate result of the decision In | that case was that the assessment
 against Foster was annuled and vacated. | In compliance with that agreement de- | crees were rendered in Fosters and all | other cases then pending, and all of the | assessments were annulled and vacated. | The number of these cases, Including | Fosters, was abouk 1l3. The names of
 those whose property was envolved in the | cases mentioned, and the real estate con- | cerned are on the dockets of the City l Court of Montgomery in equity, and are known to you and the City Council | '"As one of the attorneys for T. Gard ner Foster, and for all of the persons | alluded to, I do now protest against your | action in attempting to make these new
 assessments, on the following ground. "First-That the ordinance providing | for the re-assessment of said real estate | for cost of paving, is void as being in | violation of the Constitution of the State, | and of the charter of the City of Mont- | gomery.
 | "Second-That all of the former assess | ments, having been annulled by decrees | of the City Court of Montgomery In | equity the same are res adjudicata and | such assessments cannot again be made.
 "Third-That the methods of assess
 ments provided for by the new ordinance are contradictory and uncertain and are
 violatiye Of Section 22S of the Constitution,
 of 1901.
 "Fourth-That you are not a lawful body
 for making such re-assessments. for l these and other reasons the said parties
 represented by me hereby protests against | such attempted re-aSsesSment ana notl1y
 you that they will resist the same and
 will also hold you and the City Council
 liable for all damages they may sustain
 by reason of creating an alleged lien and
 cloud on the title to their respective lots
 of land against which you propose making
 such re-assessments.
 Respectfully.
 | Gordon Macdonald,
 "Of Counsel for T. Gardner Foster and
 others.' ..
 The communication from MT. Macdonald
 was received and filed. No action was
 taken upon. 1t.
 w. M. Blakey. w. B, Holmes, Walter
 Burch and other property owners or
 agents appeared before the Board and
 asked if property upon which the paving
 and curbing tax had been paid was to
 be reassessed. The answer to each of
 these was that no assessment was to | be made upon such property.
 The Assessment Board will be in session 1 again today.
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