Ulman v. Mayor of Baltimore

* McSherry, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The motion heretofore filed for a re-argument of this case has been overruled, but in consequence of some suggestions contained in the elaborate and exceedingly able brief, filed in behalf of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, we deem it proper to say a few words relative to' the power of the municipality under existing legislation to proceed with the work of paving its streets ⁶¹⁰ and collecting the assessments therefor. The decision in this case did not deny the existence of that power, but only had reference to the mode of its exercise. The Act of 1814, ch. 218, (Art. 4, sec. 810, Code of Public Local Laws) is wide and sweeping in its provisions.

It declares that “the said Mayor and City Council shall have, and are hereby vested with, full power and authority to provide by ordinance for the grading, shelling, paving ***** of any street ***** j and also for assessing the cost of any such work in whole or in part, pro rata, upon the property binding on such street ***** and for collecting such assessments as other city taxes are collected.” The power thus conferred is as broad and comprehensive as language can make it. The statute, in truth, delegates to the city the whole authority of the Legislature upon this subject. In construing another Act of Assembly (now codified in sec. 818 of Art. 4, Local Code) which gave the city of Baltimore “full power and authority to enact and pass all laws and ordinances necessary to preserve the health of the city, prevent and remove nuisances, &c.,” our predecessors, in the case of Harrison vs. Mayor, &c. of Balto., 1 Gill, 276 , used this' emphatic language: “The transfer of this salutary-and essential power is given in terms as explicit and comprehensive as could have been used for such' a purpose!.. To accomplish, within the specified territorial, limits, the- objects enumerated, the corporate authorities wére' clothed with all the legislative powers which the General' Assembly could have