Warren

Action upon a street assessment. A contract for grading Kansas street, in San Francisco, for several blocks to the official line and grade, was awarded to plaintiff’s assignor, at the rate of thirty-one cents per cubic yard, and was entered into between him and the superintendent of streets September 22, 1891. After he had commenced work under the contract, viz., June 15, 1892, an order was passed by the board of supervisors changing the grade of that portion of Kansas street embraced in the contract, by which the *384 same was lowered several feet. The grading to be done under this contract was a fill, so that, by the change of grade, the cost of doing the work and the assessment therefor were lessened. No further order or proceeding was had by the board of supervisors in reference to said grading, and the work therefor was completed by the contractor and his assignee to the official grade, as established by the order of June 15, 1892; and thereafter, June 16, 1893, the superintendent of streets made an assessment therefor, upon which the present action was brought. The plaintiff had judgment, and the defendants have appealed.

An underlying principle of the street improvement…