Any number of lien holders may join in action. Where con to perform contract. 1195. Any number of persons claiming liens may join in the same action, and when separate actions are commenced, the Court may consolidate them. The Court must also allow, as a part of the costs, the money paid for filing and recording the lien, and reasonable attorneys' fees in the Superior and Supreme Courts, such costs and attorneys' fees to be allowed to each lien claimant whose lien is established, whether he be plaintiff or defendant, or whether they all join in one action or separate actions are consolidated. SEC. 6. Another section is added to the Code of Civil Procedure, numbered one thousand two hundred, and reads as follows: 1200. In case the contractor shall fail to perform his contractor fails tract in full, or shall abandon the same before completion, the portion of the contract price applicable to the liens of other persons than the contractor, shall be fixed as follows: From the value of the work and materials already done and furnished at the time of such failure or abandonment, including materials then actually delivered or on the ground, which shall thereupon belong to the owner, estimated as near as may be by the standard of the whole contract price, shall be deducted the payments then due and actually paid, according to the terms of the contract and the provisions of sections one thousand one hundred and eighty-three and one thousand one hundred and eighty-four, and the remainder shall be deemed the portion of the contract price applicable to such liens. Written consent to waive claims. What forfeits liens. SEC. 7. Another section is added to the Code of Civil Procedure, numbered one thousand two hundred and one, and reads as follows: 1201. It shall not be competent for the owner and contractor, or either of them, by any term of their contract, or otherwise, to waive, affect, or impair the claims and liens of other persons, whether with or without notice, except by their written consent, and any term of the contract to that effect shall be null and void. SEC. 8. Another section is added to the Code of Civil Procedure, numbered one thousand two hundred and two, and reads as follows: 1202. Any person who shall willfully give a false notice of his claim to the owner under the provisions of section one thousand one hundred and eighty-four, shall forfeit his lien. Any person who shall willfully include in his claim filed under section one thousand one hundred and eighty-seven, work or materials not performed upon or furnished for the property described in the claim, shall forfeit his lien. If the owner and his contractor shall directly or indirectly conspire to or agree that the written contract filed shall appear to show the contract price to be less than it really is, and it shall accordingly so show, then such contract shall be wholly void, and no recovery shall be had thereon by either party thereto, and in such case the labor done and materials furnished by all persons, except the contractor, shall be deemed to have been done and furnished at the personal instance of the owner, and they shall have a lien for the value thereof. SEC. 9. Another section is added to the Code of Civil Procedure, numbered one thousand two hundred and three, and reads as follows: 1203. Any bond which may be given by the contractor Bond of to the owner, for the faithful performance of his contract, contract shall be filed, with the contract, in the Recorder's office, or be void; and whatever may be its terms, shall inure to any person who performs labor for or furnishes materials to the contractor; and any such person shall have an action to recover upon said bond against the principal and sureties, or any or either of them, for the value of such labor and materials, not to exceed the amount of the bond; but such action shall not affect his liens, nor any action to foreclose it, except that there shall be but one satisfaction of his claim, with costs and counsel fees. Nothing in this section contained shall affect or impair the rights of the owner under the bond. Nor shall any alteration in the contract, or deviation in the work or in the payments, release the sureties on said bond from their liability, except to the owner. to CHAPTER CLIII. An Act to provide for work upon streets, lanes, alleys, courts, places, and sidewalks, and for the construction of sewers within municipalities. [Approved March 18, 1885.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and PART I. or streets. SECTION 1. All streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, in Lanes, etc., the municipalities of this State now open or dedicated, are public which may hereafter be opened or dedicated to public use, shall be deemed and held to be open public streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, for the purposes of this Act, and the City Council of each municipality is hereby empowered to establish and change the grades of said streets, lanes, alleys, places, or courts, and fix the width thereof, and is hereby invested with jurisdiction to order to be done thereon any of the work mentioned in section two of this Act, under the proceedings hereinafter described. streets SEC. 2. Whenever the public interest or convenience may City Council require, the City Council is hereby authorized and empowered my order to order the whole or any portion of the streets, lanes, alleys, graded. courts, or places of any such city graded or regraded to the official grade, planked or replanked, paved or repaved, macadamized or remacadamized, graveled or regraveled, piled or repiled, capped or recapped, and to order sidewalks, sewers, manholes, culverts, curbing, and crosswalks to be constructed therein, and to order any other work to be done which shall be necessary to make and complete the whole or any portion Council to pass resolutions of intention. posted. owners. of said streets, sidewalks, lanes, alleys, courts, or places, and it may order any of the said work to be improved. SEC. 3. Before ordering any work done, or improvements made, which is authorized by section two of this Act, the City Council shall pass a resolution of intention so to do, and describing the work. The Street Superintendent shall thereupon cause to be conspicuously posted along the line of said contemplated work or improvement, at not more than three hundred feet in distance apart, but not less than three in all, or when the work to be done is the improvement of an entire crossing in front of each quarter block liable to be assessed, Notice to be notices of the passage of said resolution. Said notice shall be headed "Notice of Street Work," in letters of not less than one inch in length, and shall, in legible characters, state the fact of the passage of the resolution, its date, and briefly, the work or improvement proposed, and refer to the resolution for further particulars. He shall also cause a notice, similar in substance, to be published for a period of five days in one or more daily newspapers published and circulated in said city, and designated by said City Council, or by one insertion in a weekly newspaper so published, circulated, and desigObjection by nated. The owners of one half or more of the frontage of the property fronting on said proposed work or improvement, where the same is for one block or more, may make a written objection to the same within ten days after the expiration of the time of the publication of said notice, which objection shall be delivered to the Clerk of the City Council, who shall indorse thereon the date of its reception by him, and such objection so delivered and indorsed shall be a bar for six months to any further proceedings in relation to the doing of said work or making said improvement, unless the owners of one half or more of the frontage as aforesaid Objection to shall meanwhile petition for the same to be done. At any time before issuance of the assessment roll, all owners of lots or lands, liable to assessment therein, who after the first publication of said resolution of intention may feel aggrieved, or who may have objections to any of the subsequent proceedings of the said Council, in relation to the performance of the work mentioned in said notice of intention, shall file with the Clerk a petition of remonstrance, wherein they shall state in what respect they feel aggrieved, or the proceedings to which they object; such petition or remonstrance shall be passed upon by the said City Council, and its decisions therein shall be final and conclusive. But when the work or improvement proposed to be done is the construction of sewers, manholes, culverts, crosswalks, and sidewalks, and the objection thereto is signed by the owners of one half or more of the frontage as aforesaid, the said City Council shall, at its next meeting, fix a time for hearing said objection, not less than one week thereafter. The City Clerk shall thereupon notify the persons making such objection, by depositing a notice thereof in the Post Office of said city, postage prepaid, addressed to each objector, or his agent, when he appears for such objector. At the time specified said City Council shall hear the objections urged, and pass upon the work. Council has same, and its decision shall be final and conclusive, and the said bar for six months to any further proceedings shall not be applicable therein. And when not more than two blocks remain ungraded between one or more blocks on each side thereof, which have been graded, said City Council may order that part of said street or highway so remaining ungraded, not exceeding two blocks, to be graded and improved, and the grading and improvement of said two blocks or less shall not be stayed or prevented by any written or other objection, unless such Council shall deem proper. And if one half or more in width or in length, or as to grading, one half or more of the grading work, of any street lying and being between two successive main street crossings, or if a crossing has been already graded or improved as aforesaid, said Council may order the remainder improved, graded or otherwise, notwithstanding such objections of property owners. At the expiration of ten days after the expiration of the when time of the publication, and at the expiration of fifteen days jurisdiction. after the posting of any resolution of intention, if no written objection to the work therein described has been delivered as aforesaid by the owners of one half or more of the frontage of the property fronting on said work or improvement, the City Council shall be deemed to have acquired jurisdiction to order any of the work to be done, or improvement to be made, which is authorized by section two of this Act. Before passing any resolution for the construction of said improvements, plans, and specifications, and careful estimates of the cost and expenses thereof, shall be furnished to said City Council, if required by it, by the City Engineer of said city, and for the work of constructing sewers, specifications shall always be furnished by him. Whenever the estimated or actual cost of any work contemplated or ordered to be done by the City Council, and chargeable under the provisions of this Act against any lot or lots of land, or the owner thereof, shall exceed one half of the assessed value of such lot or lots as borne upon the last assessment roll whereon it was assessed, made for the levying of taxes for municipal purposes, the amount of the cost of said work, exceeding said one half of the assessed value of said lot or lots, shall be paid out of the city treasury, unless the owner of such lot or lots shall, in writing, signed by himself or his authorized agent, consent that the whole expense of said improvement may be made a charge against said lot or lots. petition to SEC. 4. The owners of more than one half in frontage of Owners may lots and lands fronting on any street, lane, alley, place, or grade." court, or their duly authorized agents, may petition the City Council to order any of the work mentioned in section two of this Act to be done, and the City Council may order the work mentioned in said petition to be done, after notice of its intention so to do has been posted and published as provided in section three of this Act. SEC. 5. Before the awarding of any contract by the City Proposals to Council for doing any work authorized by section two of this do the work. Act, the City Council shall cause notice to be posted conspicuously for five days on or near the Council Chamber door of reject bids. said Council, inviting sealed proposals for the work contemplated. All proposals offered shall be accompanied by a check payable to the order of the Mayor of the city, certified by a responsible bank, for an amount which shall not be less than ten per cent of the aggregate of the proposal; or, if so prescribed by the City Council, by a bond for the said amount signed by the bidder and by two sureties, who shall justify before any officer competent to administer an oath, in double the said amount over and above all statutory exemptions. Said proposals shall be delivered to the Clerk of the said City Council, and said Council shall, in open session, examine and publicly declare the same; provided, however, that no proposal shall be considered unless accompanied by said check or bond Council may satisfactory to the Council. The City Council may reject any and all bids, should it deem this for the public good, and also the bid of any party who has been delinquent and unfaithful in any former contract with the municipality, and shall reject all bids other than the lowest regular bid of any responsible bidder, and may award the contract for said work or improvement to the lowest responsible bidder at the prices named in his bid, and shall thereupon return to the proper parties the respective checks and bonds corresponding to the bids so rejected. But the check accompanying such accepted proposal or bid shall be held by the City Clerk of said city until the contract for doing said work as hereinafter provided has been entered into, either by said lowest bidder or by the owners of a major part of the frontage, whereupon said certified check shall be returned to said bidder. But if said bidder fails, neglects, or refuses to enter into the contract to perform said work or improvement, as hereinafter provided, then the certified check accompanying his bid, and the amount therein mentioned, shall be declared to be forfeited to said city, and shall be collected by it and paid into its fund for repairs of streets, and any bond forfeited may be prosecuted and the amount due thereon collected and paid into said fund. Notice of such awards of contract shall be posted for five days, in the same manner as herein before provided for the publication of proposals for said work. The owners of the major part of the frontage of lots and lands upon the street whereon said work is to be done, which are liable to be assessed for said work, or their agents, and who shall make oath that they are such owners or agents, shall not be required to present sealed proposals, but may within ten days after the first posting of notice of said award elect to take said work, and enter into a written contract to do the whole work at the price at which the same has been awarded. Should the said owners fail to elect to take said work and to enter into a written contract therefor within said ten days, or to commence the work within fifteen days after the first publication of said award, and to prosecute the same with diligence to completion, it shall be the duty of the Superintendent of Streets to enter into a contract with the original bidder to whom the contract was awarded, and at the prices specified in his bid. But if said original bidder neglects, fails, or refuses for fifteen days after the first posting of notice Notice of award to be posted. |