City Council v. King

A legislative act which undertakes to empower a city council to collect “ all sums that may be assessed by said city council, or its authority, against each and every improved lot lying on any street in [the city], through which the pipes of the [city] waterworks may pass,” is unconstitutional when it makes no provision for fixing the amount of the assessments for which it provides, with relation either to the cost thereof or the benefits to the property-owners, nor for any just apportionment of such cost among the several property-owners interested, nor for notice to them, nor for giving…