Ostrander v. City of Richmond

[469]

MELVIN, J.

This appeal presents but one question for an answer by this court. That question relates to the interpretation of the word “may” as employed in a statute. The trustees of the city of Richmond passed a resolution of intention to pave Macdonald Avenue in said city. After the proceedings usual in such matters, respondents Edgar A. Mizner & Co. were awarded the contract for the work. Appellant raises no objection to the regularity of the form of the proceedings leading up to and including the letting of this contract, except that the jurisdiction of the board of trustees to order the work is denied because the cost of the proposed improvement will be more than one half of the assessed valuation of the property fronting on Macdonald Avenue along that portion of said street described in the resolution of the board of trustees. Appellant, who is the owner of land fronting on Macdonald Avenue, upon the theory that the trustees have power to act only upon the district plan of assessment and not upon the method usually described as the “front foot” system, prayed for an injunction to prevent further proceedings by the contractors, the city of Richmond, and the officers of the municipality. A demurrer to this complaint was sustained without leave to amend and this appeal is taken from the judgment sustaining said demurrer.

The so-called “Vrooman Act,” as amended in 1905', provides among other things that, “Whenever the contemplated work of improvement, in the opinion of the city council, is of more than local or ordinary public benefit, or whenever, according to estimate to be furnished by the city engineer, the total estimated costs and expenses thereof would exceed one half the total assessed value of the lots and lands assessed, if assessed upon the lots or land fronting .upon said-proposed work or improvement, according to the valuation fixed by the last assessment-roll whereon it was assessed for taxes for municipal purposes, and allowing a reasonable depth from such frontage for lots or lands assessed in bulb, the city council may make the expense of such work or improvement chargeable upon a district, which the said city council shall, in its resolution of intention, declare to be the district benefited by said work or improvement, and to be assessed to pay the costs and expenses thereof.” (Stats. 1905, p. 66.) Appellant insists that inasmuch as the “total estimated cost” of the