Report of referees. Excess of benefits. tutes only a part of a larger parcel, the damages which will accrue to the portion not sought to be condemned, by reason of its severance from the portion sought to be condemned, and the construction of the improvement in the manner proposed by the plaintiff. Third-The benefit to the several parcels of land within the prescribed limits not taken for the improvement. SEC. 11. The referees shall make their report within a time to be prescribed by the Court; provided, that if they cannot agree, they may make separate reports as to all or any of the parcels of land, and the Court may confirm the unanimous report or either of the separate reports; or may, upon the testimony given, find the facts itself. If the aggregate of benefits is less than the damages, the proceeding shall be discontinued; if equal to or greater than the damages, the Court must assess said lands for an amount sufficient to pay such damages. Each parcel must be assessed separately, in proportion to the benefits received from said improvement. If the benefits to any parcel are less than the damages to it, they shall be deducted from the damages, and the remainder shall be the amount of damages allowed to such parcels. SEC. 12. When the Court has ascertained the excess of benefits over damages to each parcel so benefited, it must, by its judgment, direct a sale of each parcel, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and the application of the proceeds of the sale to the payment of said amount, and the costs of Court and expense of the same. Satisfaction SEC. 13. Within thirty days after the entry of judgment of judgment, the persons liable must pay to the Clerk of the Court the several amounts thereof, in default of which the same shall be collected by sale of the respective parcels under execution. The provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to the sale of land under execution shall apply to sales under this section. After the money is collected, payment shall be made or tendered to the parties entitled thereto, if they can be found, and the Court must make a final order of condemnation, which must describe the property condemned, and the purpose of such condemnation. Final order of Court. Costs. Exemptions. SEC. 15. A copy of the order must be filed in the office of the Recorder of the county, and thereupon the property described therein shall vest in the plaintiff, for the purposes therein specified. In case of conflict of title to any parcel, the money to be paid shall be placed and remain in Court, to be awarded to the true owner, by due process of law. SEC. 16. Costs may be allowed or not, and if allowed, may be apportioned among the parties, in the discretion of the Court. Except as otherwise herein provided, the provisions of Part Second and Part Third of the Code of Civil Procedure are applicable and constitute the rules of practice, and the rules applicable to new trials and appeals in this proceeding. SEC. 17. The City of Oakland shall not open or extend the street now called "East Ninth Street," formerly known as Jefferson Street; nor shall the city open Eighth Avenue, formerly called Fremont Street, through the property of T. W. Badger, now called Badger's Park, and known upon the official map or plot of Brooklyn as fractional blocks numbers one and eleven. SEC. 18. An Act entitled "An Act to authorize the Council Acts of the City of Oakland to lay out, open, or improve streets repealed. in said city," approved January thirty-first, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and all Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto, are hereby repealed. SEC. 19. This Act shall take effect immediately. CHAP. CCCXXXVI.-An Act to enable the City of Stockton to redeem its bonds falling due during the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six. [Approved March 25, 1876.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and bonds. SECTION 1. The City of Stockton, by its City Council, is City Council empowered to issue bonds, not exceeding in amount the sum to issue of twenty-one thousand three hundred dollars, as hereinafter provided, for the purpose of redeeming the bonds of said city which become due during the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six. SEC. 2. Said bonds shall be numbered consecutively as issued, shall be signed by the Treasurer and countersigned by the Mayor of said city, in their official capacities, and shall have the seal of said city affixed, and shall bear interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, payable semiannually on the first days of January and July in each year, upon coupons for such year, signed by the City Treasurer of said city and attached to said bonds, the amount of interest to become due on any fraction of time from date of issue, and the time for the first payment of interest, being written upon the coupon representing that payment. The principal sum shall be made payable at a period not exceeding twenty years from date, and may be redeemed at any when to be time after ten years from said date, at the option of said city, redeemed. and both principal and interest shall be made payable in gold coin of the United States, at the Treasurer's office in said city. bonds. SEC. 3. The City Council shall cause a record to be kept Record of of the issuing of said bonds, to whom delivered, amount, numbers, and such other facts as may be deemed needful, and of all bonds redeemed, and may make any and all needful orders for the issuing, delivery, custody, or negotiation of said bonds, or for the exchange, redemption, or rate or manner of sale or exchange of bonds for any now outstanding, or any other bonds which may be needful, or become so, for the furtherance of the purpose of this Act, not inconsistent with its provisions. SEC. 4. All bonds redeemed under the provisions of this Act shall be canceled in writing across the face thereof, and returned and filed with the City Treasurer, and a report thereof be made to the City Council. the Interest and SEC. 5. The City Council are hereby authorized, upon redemption funds. Treasurer to redeem bonds. issuing of said bonds annually thereafter, in addition to the taxes now authorized by law, and at the time when taxes are levied for general city purposes, to levy a tax sufficient to pay the interest on said bonds for each year, and in the year succeeding the tenth year from the issuing said bonds, in addition to the said sum necessary to pay said interest, a sum sufficient to raise an amount equal to five per cent. of the whole amount of said bonds then outstanding shall be assessed, and on each of the succeeding six years said additional tax shall be increased one per cent. over the amount of each past year's assessment, and for the remaining time a rate shall be fixed for each year which will pay the balance due of said bonds at the expiration of said twenty years. The fund thus raised from year to year shall be known as "The Twenty Bond Fund." Said taxes shall be levied and assessed as directed in and by an Act of the Legislature of the State of California, enlarging the limits of the said City of Stockton, approved January twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and seventy, and by the city charter of said city, approved March twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and be collected in the same manner as taxes are collected for general city purposes. The amounts, when collected, shall be paid into the city treasury and applied, under the direction of the City Council, first, to the payment of the interest on said bonds, and secondly, to their redemption. SEC. 6. Whenever, after ten years from the issuance of said bonds, the money in said fund shall amount to four thousand dollars, the City Council may direct the City Treasurer to pay such an amount of said bonds as the money in his hands in said fund will redeem, at the lowest value at which they may be offered for liquidation, after advertising for three weeks in some newspaper published in said city, for sealed proposals for the redemption of said bonds, said proposals to be opened by said Council, in open session, at a time to be named in said notice, and the lowest bids for the surrender of said bonds shall be accepted; provided, that no bonds shall be redeemed at a sum above par value. Bids being equal, the lowest numbered bonds shall have the preference. If no offers are received, or not sufficient to exhaust the fund, the Treasurer shall give notice, by publication in a newspaper published in said city, for six successive weeks, that on and after a day fixed therein he will pay and redeem the bonds of said city, commencing at the bond lowest in number then outstanding, and so on consecutively until the fund is exhausted, giving the number of each bond so to be paid; after which time for payment fixed in said notice, all such bonds so named shall cease to draw interest. SEC. 7. Whenever any bonds or coupons, authorized by this Act, are paid, they shall be canceled across the face and filed in the City Treasurer's office, and report thereof made to the City Council. SEC. 8. This Act shall take effect from and after its passage. CHAP. CCCXXXVII.-An Act to widen English Street, in the The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and notice of taking lands. SECTION 1. The Board of Trustees of the City of Petaluma Trustees to shall have power to determine, by order, to widen English vice Street, from Main Street to Howard Street, to a width of private seventy (70) feet, and that it will be necessary to take private lands for that purpose, and for that purpose shall enter in their minutes a resolution or ordinance declaring such determination, containing a description of the lands so deemed necessary, and also all that part of said City of Petaluma. which they adjudge will be benefited by said improvement and which ought to bear the expense thereof. Such descriptions to be made with like certainty, as is required by law in complaints in actions in ejectment, to refer to all such lands by the numbers of the lots of which they are composed or form a part, as the same are laid down upon the official map of said city. Such resolution or ordinance of their intention shall be published for two successive weeks thereafter in the Petaluma Weekly Argus, with notice to all parties interested to file remonstrances with the City Clerk on or before the day of the next regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. SEC. 2. If the said Board of Trustees shall determine to Final order proceed with such contemplated improvement, they shall of Trustees. thereupon pass and enter in their minutes a final ordinance declaring their determination, containing a description of the land deemed necessary to be taken therefor, and also of that portion of the said city which, will be benefited by said improvement, and upon which the expense thereof is to be assessed; which description shall contain the certainty and particularity required in that behalf in the first section of this Act. SEC. 3. The said Board of Trustees shall cause a map of Filing of said contemplated public improvement to be made, desig- map. nating on such map the lots, tracts, and parcels of land which have been declared necessary to be taken for the same as aforesaid, and showing the commencement, boundaries, and termination of such contemplated improvement; and, also, that part and portion of said city declared to be benefited by the same and to be assessed therefor, with the like certainty as required by the first section of this Act, which map shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk. Published notice to specify. District point Com SEC. 4. The Board of Trustees of said city shall cause to be published, for two weeks, in the Petaluma Weekly Argus, a notice specifying and describing the land so declared neccessary for such public improvement, and the portion of said city so declared to be benefited by the making thereof and to be assessed for the expense thereof, and that the damages and recompense to which the owner or owners of such land may be entitled for the same will be inquired into and determined, and that said damages and recompense, together with the costs and charges of proceedings for the purpose of acquiring title to such lands and making apportionment thereof, will be apportioned and assessed upon the owners of lots and other real estate to be benefited thereby, by ComCourt to a missioners to be appointed by the District Court of the missioners. Seventh Judicial District, in and for the County of Sonoma, in the exercise of its civil jurisdiction, at a day in the next term of said Court to be holden in said county, to be specified in said notice. The said Board of Trustees shall cause a copy of said notice to be served upon each of the owners of the respective parcels of land to be taken for such improvement, and of the lands and tenements within the territory to be benefited by such improvement, who are residents of said city, and upon the usual agents or attorneys who theretofore have had charge of such lands of such owners who may be non-residents of said city, so far as known; and in case any of said parcels of land are vacant, and the owners thereof are unknown, then by affixing a copy of such notice in some conspicuous place thereon at least ten days previous to the day specified in said notice for the appointment of said Commissioners by said District Court. The service and posting of said notices may be proved by the certificate of the Marshal of said city, or in the same manner as proof is made of service of a summons in a civil case in said Court. Court to hear SEC. 5. Upon the filing in the District Court of said Sonoma County a copy of all the proceedings of the Board of Trustees of said city as hereinbefore provided, certified by the Clerk of said Board under the corporate seal of said city, and the original affidavits of publication of notices and all proof of service and posting of notices, and the original map made as hereinbefore provided, the said Court shall have and take jurisdiction of said proceeding, and shall determine the same. At the day specified in said notice, or at such other day to which the same may be adjourned, the said Court, after ascertaining to its own satisfaction that said notices have been duly served or published, and upon hearing the City Attorney of said city, and any parties who may appear for those interested, shall appoint three freeholders of said city, not interested in any of the lands and tenements described in said notice, nor of kin to any occupant or owner thereof, Commissioners of Appraisal and Assessment. The said Court may at any time remove any or all of said Commissioners for cause, upon reasonable notice and hearing, and may fill any vacancy occurring among them from any proceedings. Appraisal and assessment. cause. |