City Securities Co. v. Harvey

[683]

VICTOR E. SHAW, J.,

pro tem.

Action to foreclose a lien based upon an assessment against a lot and parcel of land owned by defendant Harvey for the cost of constructing a sidewalk on Eleventh Street, upon which said property fronted in the city of Los Angeles.

A decree was entered as prayed for in favor of plaintiff from which, and an order denying her motion for a new trial, defendant Harvey appeals.

The proceedings which created the alleged lien purport to have been had" and taken by the city council of Los Angeles under and pursuant to the provisions of an act of the legislature entitled “An act to provide for work upon and the construction of sidewalks and curbing within municipalities” (Stats. 1909, p. 167), and provided for the construction of cement sidewalks varying in width on portions of both sides of Eleventh Street, between Main and Figueroa Streets.

At the trial the court, over defendants’ objection, admitted in evidence the warrant, assessment, and diagram made by the superintendent of streets, together with the certificate of the city engineer as to the completion of the work, which under section 11 of the act, when accompanied by an affidavit of demand and nonpayment, are made

prima facie

evidence of the regularity and correctness of the assessment and the prior proceedings upon which said assessment, warrant, and diagram are based, and like evidence of plaintiff’s right to recover in the action. Thereupon, plaintiff having rested, the defendant moved for a nonsuit upon the ground, among others, that the documents offered and received in evidence were on their face illegal and void, and as made, without authority of law, for the reason that as appeared therefrom the assessment included the work done on both sides of the street and against each lot, not in proportion to the frontage which it bore to that of all the lots in the same side of the street along which the entire sidewalk was constructed, but in proportion to the number of square feet of sidewalk constructed in front thereof as compared with the number of square feet in the whole area of sidewalk constructed, which motion the court denied.