Cooper

The plaintiffs, as abutting property owners along a public street in San Francisco, brought this action to set aside an assessment for improvement of the street levied under the San Francisco street improvement ordinance of 1918. The defendants are the members of the board of public works of the city and county and the contractor who performed the work which was the basis of the assessment. The cause was tried by the court and judgment went for the defendants from which the plaintiffs appeal under section 953a of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The controversy revolves about the single fact that over the entire portion of the street included in the assessment the city owned and operated a municipal street railway and that in the improvement of the street the abutting property owners were assessed to pay the entire cost of the street improvement, including the paving between the rails of the street railway and for two feet on each side thereof, whereas, in the ease of a privately owned street railway, this cost is imposed upon the owner of the railway.

The appellants designate six points as grounds for a reversal of the judgment. We will consider them in the order presented.

(1)…