Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/195/351/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 20:35:36+00:00

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An assessment on lands for the entire expense of opening a street levied under a front-foot assessment authorized by statute is not necessarily void under the Fourteenth Amendment because levied after the work was completed, or because, at the time the work was ordered, the municipality had power, under statutes repealed after the completion of the work and before the assessment was made, to include a portion of the expense in the general taxes and to levy the assessment on a valuation basis under which a smaller amount would have been assessed against these lands.
Taxation, whether general or special, is not subject to the rules applicable to a vendor's lien and its enforcement against a bona fide purchaser for value, and it is for one purchasing lands after a public improvement has been completed to inquire whether it has been paid for, and the same rules as to the enforcement of the assessment applicable to the former owners are applicable to him.
showing the extension, with his land on the two sides of it divided into lots and blocks. The plan was approved, and in 1890 the city passed an ordinance that Weller Street be graded from the beginning to Jackson Street Addition, and that sidewalks be constructed on both sides of it coextensive with the grade. Ordinance No. 1285. The street was graded, and, according to the testimony, had to be cut and filled almost continuously. It also was planked for some distance, but the planking stopped about one thousand feet before reaching Hill's tract. Then an assessment was levied, but this was held void. The next things that happened were a sale of Hill's land and a mortgage of it in January, 1892, to the appellee, which later was foreclosed. The appellee, who lived out of the state, alleges that he was ignorant of the submission of the plan by Hill.
not more than one hundred and twenty feet on each side of the margin. Reassessments were authorized. In pursuance of the charter, an ordinance was adopted by the city providing the manner in which the local assessment should be made. Ordinance No. 2085.
In this state of the ordinances and laws, a reassessment of the whole cost of the improvement was ordered in January, 1894, in conformity with the act of 1893, the new charter, and the ordinance No. 2085. Ordinance No. 3199. The proper steps were taken, and the assessment was confirmed on March 5, 1894. Ordinance No. 3267. By this assessment, the whole cost of the improvement, $35,620.60, was levied on the abutting land, and $14,262.68 was fixed as the plaintiff's share. It is alleged that he thus is charged forty-four percent under the present plan, whereas, under the one in force when the improvement was made, he would have been charged only thirty-two percent. It also is alleged that, being absent from the state, he did not know of the reassessment proceedings until they were concluded.
the planking, and that such an assessment of the whole cost, including the planking, on the property on Weller Street, is absolutely unfair as to the plaintiff's land.
A general attack upon the statute of 1893 is not attempted. It was within the power of the legislature to create, or to authorize the creation of, special taxing districts, and to charge the cost of a local improvement upon the property in such a district by frontage. Websler v. Fargo, 181 U. S. 394; French v. Barber Asphalt Paving Co., 181 U. S. 324; McNamee v. Tacoma, 24 Wash. 591, 595; Cooley, Const.Lim., 7th ed., 729. The only question of principle, therefore, raised by the inclusion of the planking in the sum of which the plaintiff was to pay his share is whether it was manifestly unfair in this particular case. Taken by itself, it looks like an unwarrantable attempt to make one man pay for another man's convenience.
as he wished. The extension of the street helped to bring his land into the market. It was more likely to benefit him than those who were lower down. We cannot invalidate the assessment because the speculation has failed. Assuming, without deciding, that the question is open to the plaintiff in this proceeding, we are of opinion that the record does not justify interference by injunction on the ground that the assessment was manifestly unfair.
"to take such steps as were within its power to take, either under existing statutes, or under any authority that might thereafter be conferred upon it, to make a new assessment upon the plaintiff's abutting property"
in any constitutional way. Norwood v. Baker, 172 U. S. 269, 172 U. S. 293; McNamee v. Tacoma, 24 Wash. 591; Annie Wright Seminary v. Tacoma, 23 Wash. 109.
We think it unnecessary to consider other questions on the part of the case that we have dealt with. We have said enough in our opinion to show that the enforcement of the assessment lien could not be prevented by the original owner. It is urged, however, that a different rule could be applied in favor of one who purchased the land under the circumstances stated above. But the attempt to liken taxation, whether general or special, to the enforcement of a vendor's lien, and thus to introduce the doctrine concerning bona fide purchasers for value, rests on a fallacy similar to that which we have mentioned above, which would deny the right to tax upon an executed consideration. A man cannot get rid of his liability to a tax by buying without notice. See Tallman v. Janesville, 17 Wis. 71, 76; Cooley, Taxation, 3d ed. 527, 528. Indeed, he cannot buy without notice, since the liability is one of the notorious incidents of social life. In this case, the road was cut through the plaintiff's land, and, if he had looked, was visible upon the ground. Whether it had been paid for was for him to inquire. The history of what had happened would have suggested that it was not improbable that sooner or later a payment must be made.

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