Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/188/516/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 00:06:03+00:00

Document:
The construction placed by the highest courts of the state upon a statute providing for paving streets and distributing the assessment therefor is conclusive upon this Court.
Where a person attacking the validity of an assessment claims that the city is estopped from proceeding to collect the benefits assessed upon lots, the owner whereof objected in writing, and which objections were placed on file by the common council, the question, so far as such estoppel is concerned, is purely state, and not federal.
Within repeated decisions of this Court, the statute in question in this case is not in conflict with the Constitution of the United States.
lots on Williams Street, in Schaefer's Addition to the City of Huntington, Indiana, with other lot owners, petitioned the city council to have the street graded and graveled. On July 10, 1893, the petition was granted and the street ordered to be so improved. After this improvement had been ordered, some of the lot owners petitioned the city council to order the street paved with brick. This petition was presented on August 14, 1893. A remonstrance was at the same time presented, the plaintiff in error being one of the parties thereto. Notwithstanding the remonstrance, the city council ordered that the street be paved with brick, and let a contract therefor to the defendants in error. They completed the work according to the contract, and the lots abutting on Williams Street were assessed for the cost thereof, the assessment being made by the front foot, and a precept to collect the amount due on the lots of the plaintiff in error issued to the city treasurer. Further proceedings were had on appeal, in accordance with the provisions of the statute, which ended in a decision of the supreme court affirming the validity of the assessment, on the authority of Adams v. Shelbyville, 154 Ind. 467, and thereupon the case was brought here on writ of error.
an incorporated town have not only the power, but it is their imperative duty, to adjust the assessments for street and alley improvements under said act to conform to the actual special benefits accruing to each of the abutting property owners."
Of course, the construction placed by the supreme court of a state upon its statutes is, in a case of this kind, conclusive upon this Court. Forsyth v. Hammond, 166 U. S. 506, 166 U. S. 518, and cases cited. And with that construction the following recently decided cases, in which the matter of street assessment was fully considered, sustain the decision of the state court upholding the validity of the law: Barber Asphalt Paving Co. v. French, 181 U. S. 324; Wight v. Davidson, 181 U. S. 371; Tonawanda v. Lyon, 181 U. S. 389; Webster v. Fargo, 181 U. S. 394; Cass Farm Co. v. Detroit, 181 U. S. 396; Detroit v. Parker, 181 U. S. 399; Wormley v. District of Columbia, 181 U. S. 402; Shumate v. Heman, 181 U. S. 402; Farrell v. West Chicago Park, 181 U. S. 404; King v. Portland, 184 U. S. 61; Voigt v. Detroit, 184 U. S. 115; Goodrich v. Detroit, 184 U. S. 432.
"because the cost of said improvement will greatly exceed the benefit of said improvement; second, said proposed improvement is not necessary to said real estate, and is not of public utility to said real estate."
"and offered to present her objections to the necessity of said improvement, but that the said common council refused to hear her objections to the improvement of said street with brick, treating her said objections as a mere communication, and ordering the same placed on file."
on the lots herein described."
The circuit court sustained a demurrer to this answer. It may be observed that, so far as the question was one of estoppel, it was a purely state, and not a federal, question. Gillis v. Stinchfield, 159 U. S. 658; Phoenix Insurance Company v. Tennessee, 161 U. S. 174; Beals v. Cone, 188 U. S. 184. Further, the matter was not noticed by the supreme court, and its judgment is the one before us for review.

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