Title: Crocker v. City of Albany
Citation: 241 Or. 180, 405 P.2d 364
Docket Number: N/A
State: Oregon
Issuer: Oregon Supreme Court
Date: September 8, 1965

Affirmed September 8, 1965.
*181 C.S. Emmons, Albany, argued the cause for appellants. On the brief were Willis, Kyle &amp; Emmons, Albany.
Merle A. Long, City Attorney, Albany, argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.
Before McALLISTER, Chief Justice, and PERRY, O'CONNELL and DENECKE, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
PERRY, J.
The plaintiffs are the owners of real property in the city of Albany. In March, 1963, the city of Albany by ordinance initiated proceedings to pave certain streets in that city. The city thereafter completed the project and the plaintiffs, as abutting owners on the improved streets, brought this suit to enjoin the city from enforcing the lien of the assessments as levied upon each plaintiff's particular lot.
The trial court sustained the city's demurrer to plaintiffs' complaint and plaintiffs appeal.
The material portions of the complaint necessary to this appeal are as follows:
The plaintiffs then allege:
1. A suit in equity, brought by a property owner to set aside an assessment for municipal improvements and to enjoin enforcement of the lien thereby created where the municipal authorities are granted the authority to provide municipal improvements, as is the city of Albany, is a collateral attack upon the city's *185 legislative judgments and, in the absence of allegations of fraud or palpably unjust and oppressive action, the courts will not interfere. Phipps v. Medford, 81 Or 119, 156 P 787, 158 P 666.
It will be noted that the plaintiffs do not contend that the defendant city failed in any manner to follow the formal proceedings required to lawfully proceed with the improvement of the streets within the city. They state that, since there was a material variance between the estimated cost and the actual cost of the improvements, the notice required by ordinance was invalid.
The ordinance requires only that an estimated cost be given in the notice. There is no requirement that the estimated cost shall be within a certain percentage limit of the actual cost, and the plaintiffs do not allege any fraud in connection with the estimate; such as, that a fraudulent estimate was given for the purpose of misleading the plaintiffs and causing them not to protest the proposed improvement as they were privileged to do.
The plaintiffs' pleadings disclose that the estimate of the cost of the improvements was based upon the average cost of prior improvements.
The plaintiffs' principal contention, that their complaint states a cause of action, is based upon their allegations to the effect that the entire cost of the improvement of the streets was assessed on a front foot basis for the entire project, without regard to the fact that the streets were not of uniform width and, therefore, there was not a uniformity of cost as measured on a front foot basis; that this method of assessment necessarily required those living on the narrower streets to help in the payment of the costs expended upon the wider streets.
*186 2. Assessing the improvement costs on a front foot basis is not an illegal method of assessment. Smith v. Jefferson, 75 Or 179, 146 P 809.
3. This assertion of the plaintiffs as to the method of assessment would invoke the powers of a court of equity only if it were made to appear that the assessments were made without reference to the benefits received. It appears from the complaint that this particular improvement comprised a single district where the streets were adjacent to each other. "It is well established that a city may use an area basis in making an assessment." Raz et al v. City of Portland et al, 226 Or 515, 521, 360 P2d 549. And an area basis may be used in apportioning benefits. Rogers v. City of Salem, 61 Or 321, 122 P 308.
4. To have a valid assessment, the expense of the improvements must be assessed only against the lands benefited, and reasonably apportioned according to such benefits. King v. Portland, 38 Or 402, 63 P 2, 55 LRA 812; O &amp; C.R.R. Co. v. Portland, 25 Or 229, 35 P 452.
5. There is no allegation in the complaint that all of the properties assessed within the contiguous district, if not reasonably equally benefited, were benefited so disproportionately as to make the method of assessment appear palpably unjust and oppressive and thus make it appear that the city acted arbitrarily. Raz et al v. City of Portland et al, supra.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.