Rockridge Place Co. v. City of Oakland

In 1913 the city council of Oakland changed and re-established the official grade and width of the sidewalks on Broadway under the Change of Grade Act of 1909. (Stats. 1909, p. 1018.) The council, pursuant to proper legal proceedings, officially changed and re-established the grade to a depth of nearly thirty feet lower than it had formerly been opposite the plaintiff’s property at the crest of the Broadway hill. On June 13, 1914, the plaintiff, along with a majority of other owners of property fronting on Broadway Street, between Ocean View Drive on the south and Temeseal Creek on the north, signed and presented a petition to the council requesting the improvement of Broadway by grading it to the official grade, preparatory to later curbing and guttering the street and paving it with oil macadam and constructing a culvert in Temeseal Creek. Following the filing of this petition and on November 30, 1914, the City of Oakland adopted an ordinance lowering further the grade on Broadway and naming a street called Patton Street and establishing grades on Patton Street. Thereafter, the city council, in accordance with the Improvement Act of 1911 (Stats. 1911, p. 730), adopted the plans…