CAP. LIII. Pre mble. Shares of Class A & B not already issued, Issue of bonds for amount of issued An Act to amend the Charter of the City of Montreal. [Assented to 31st October, 1879.] WHEREAS the Corporation of the City of Montreal have, by their petition, represented that it is expedient to make certain changes and modifications in the acts concerning the said Corporation, so as to give force and effect to certain powers which have already been conferred upon it, but which, from circumstances beyond its control, the said Corporation is unable to exercise, and also to provide more effective means for the government of the municipal affairs of the said city; Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislature of Quebec, enacts as follows: 1. The shares or stock comprised in the two classes A and B, established in and by section 106 of the act of the legislature of this province, passed in the 37th year of Her Majesty's Reign, chap. 51, not already issued, shall be either permanent, in perpetuity and unredeemable, or payable at a fixed period, in the same manner as the debentures of class C; and section 107 of the said act is amended accordingly. 2. Instead of the registered stock provided for in and by sections 107, 108, 109, 110, and 111 of the said act, the Consolidated said Council may issue coupon bonds for any amount Fund not (not already issued of the "City of Montreal Consolidated Fund," established by virtue of the said section 106; which said bonds shall, as regards the sinking fund, the form of such bonds, the time at which they shall be made payable, and the manner of negotiating the same, be subject to the provisions of sections 112, 116 and 117 of the said act; provided however that the interest on the said bonds may be made payable semi-annually, from the date thereof. S. 118 repealed. Further preamble. 3. Section 118 of the said act is hereby repealed. 4. And whereas, in virtue of the power and authority conferred upon the Corporation of the City of Montreal by the act 27th and 28th Vict., chap. 60, and the different acts amending the same, the said corporation has, in several instances, proceeded to make improvements by the opening, widening or extending of streets, or by establishing public squares or parks in the said city; and has regularly paid each and every the different amounts of indemnity fixed by the Commissioners of expropriation on the strength of the provisions of the said act, to the effect that the said Corporation would be reimbursed of the said amounts, in whole or in part, according to the resolution of the City Council ordering the said improvement, by means of an assessment to be levied on the properties benefitted; and whereas it has become necessary, in the interest of justice, to afford it the means of recovering from the parties benefitted, the large sums of money disbursed by the said Corporation, for the profit and advantage of the said parties benefitted, it is hereby declared and enacted that each and every the rolls of assessment prepared and completed since the passing of the act 29th and 30th Vict., chap. 56, whereby Commissioners were substituted for the assessors for assessing the cost of an improvement on the parties benefitted, and which have not been Certain contested in any court, shall be held to have been, since assessment rolls,declared their completion, and to be now valid and obligatory and valid and binding in law to all intents and purposes whatsoever, binding. unless such rolls of assessment be annulled by the Superior Court, upon actions which must be brought within a delay of thirty days after the coming into force of this act, to which delay, the right of demanding the annulment of such rolls of assessment, is limited; and section proviso. eight of this act shall apply to such actions, and it shall not be allowed to plead in such actions, that such rolls of assessment were not made at the proper time or at the same time as the valuation rolls:-and as certain rolls of assess- New ment have been the subject matter of litigation before a in cercourt, or have, at the instance of some of the parties in- taia cases. terested, been declared void by judgment of a court,—it is hereby declared that in such cases, and also in cases where any roll of assessment may be annulled under the provisions contained in this section, it shall be lawful for the said Corporation to cause a new roll of assessment to be made in the following manner to wit: assessment rolls of Commis certain im 1. The said Corporation, by its Counsel, shall give Appointment notice, in at least two newspapers, one of which published sioners for in the French and the other in the English language, in assessing the said city, which said notice shall have two insertions cost of in each of the said newspapers, that it will, by and provements. through its said Counsel present on the day and hour mentioned in the said notice, to the Superior Court, sitting in review, in the district of Montreal, a petition calling upon the said court to choose and nominate three competent and disinterested persons to act as Commissioners, for the purpose of assessing the cost of the improvement, in whole or in part, as the case may be on the properties benefitted, and fifteen days at least, shall elapse from the date of the last insertion of the said notice in the said newspapers, to the day appointed for the presentation of the said petition; the court shall appoint three commissioners as aforesaid, and fix the day on which they shall begin their operations; Application s 2. Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 8, 17 and 18 of section 176 of of §§ 4, 5, 6, the act 37 Vict., chap. 51, shall apply to the said cominis 8, 17, 18 of S. 176 37 V., csioners; 51. Formalities to be observed by Com Their remuneration. Their 3. The said commissioners, before proceeding, shall be Sworn before the Prothonotary of the said Superior Court, according to schedule Y of the said last mentioned act; and the remuneration of the commissioners shall be the same as fixed in paragraph 7 of section 176 of the Act 37 Vict., chap. 51: such remuneration and all other costs connected with making such new rolls of assessment and all judicial costs incurred, shall not be included in the amount to be levied by such new rolls of assessment; 4. It shall be the duty of the said commissioners to proceedings. commence their proceedings on the day fixed by the judgment appointing them, and to assess and apportion the cost of the improvement, in whole or in part, as the case may be, according to benefit and in such manner as to them may appear most reasonable and just, upon all and every the pieces or parcels of land or real estate which they may determine to have been benefited; § § 2, 3, 4, 5 of 8. 185 and S. 186 of said 5. Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 of section 185 and section 186 of the said last cited act, shall apply to the proceedact, to apply. ings of the said commissioners, as well with respect to the determination of the limits as to the apportionment of the assessment, Mode of proceedings for apportionment. If a new assessment roll is annulled. Id. for of certain streets. 5. The mode of proceeding to fix the apportionment of the cost of an improvement in the said city as prescribed in the preceding section, shall be followed in any case where the said corporation has deposited in court the amount of the indemnity, but has not yet caused the apportionment of the cost of the said improvement to be made and prepared. 6. In case any new roll of assessment made under this act should be annulled, the said corporation may cause another to be made under the provisions of this act. 7. Whenever a special roll of assessment for street or park improvements in the said city, shall be or may already have been annulled and set aside, the payments made under the authority of the same shall not be thereby invalidated; but such payments shall go to the discharge ver, to of the respective amounts to be fixed by the new assessment roll, subject on the part of the making good any deficiency, or to receiving back any surplus according to the difference that may eventually exist between the old and the new roll of assessment; and the present provision shall apply as well to special assessment rolls heretofore made and completed as to those which may hereafter be made and completed': This section however shall not affect judgments rendered Judgment In nor pending causes; and it shall also be subject to the rendered and pending cases, obligation on the part of the said city, to commence not affected. proceedings for the making of the new rolls of assessment, 10 within six months from the passing of this act, for rolls of assessment then annulled, and within six months from the annulment for rolls of assessment which may be hereafter annulled. allowed. 8. No objection founded upon form or upon the Objections to omission of any formality even imperative, shall be the form, not allowed to prevail in any action, suit or proceeding respecting municipal matters, unless substantial injustice would be done by rejecting such objection. Dotice, 9. Any person who has acquiesced in that which is Defect in required by a notice, or who has, in any manner not to unvawhatsoever, become sufficiently acquainted with its lidate in tenor or object, shall not thereafter avail himself of certain cases. the insufficiency or informality of such notice or of the omission of its publication or service. S. 3 of 41 c. 10. Section 3 of the act 41 Vict, chap. 27 is hereby Vict, c. 27, repealed and the following substituted for section 99 of repealed. S.99 the act 37 Vict., chap. 51. of 37 Vict., c. "99. Legal interest is hereby declared to have accrued 51, replaced. When legal and become exigible, from the passing of the said act 37 interest is Vict., chap. 51, on the annual taxes and assessments which exigible. were due and payable to the said city, at the time of the passing of the said last cited act, as well as on the annual taxes and assessments that have since then become due and payable, and the same rate of interest shall accrue on all taxes and assessments, whether annual or special, which will henceforth become due and payable, said interest to run from the expiration of the delay within which such annual or special taxes and assessments shall respectively be due and payable it shall not be lawful for the said Council Remission of or any of its officers to remit any part of the interest so interest, not allowed. Prescription 11. All arrears of municipal taxes and assessments of arrears of imposed in the city of Montreal, shall be prescribed by This provision is subject to the application of articles 2267 and 2270 of the civil code. taxes. Annulment of by-laws &c., for illegality. S 31 of 37 V c. 51, amended. Oath of voters. Person voting three years. 12. Any municipal elector, in his own name, may, by a petition presented to the Superior Court sitting in the district of Montreal, demand and obtain on the ground of illegality, the annulment of any by-law, resolution, assessment roll or apportionment, with costs against the corporation; but the right of demanding such annulment is prescribed by three months from the date of the coming into force of such by-law, resolution, assessment roll or apportionment; and after that delay, every such by-law, resolution, assessment roll or apportionment shall be considered valid and binding for all legal purposes whatsoever, provided that it be within the competence of the said corporation. 13. Section 31 of the said act 37 Vict.,chap. 51, is hereby amended by striking out therefrom the last proviso, and substituting the following in lieu thereof: "provided also that the said list shall be finally revised previous to the thirty days immediately preceding that fixed for the municipal election"; and by adding the following words, at the end of said section "The voting sub-divisions, once established, shall not be altered and shall serve for every subsequent municipal election." 14. Schedule F appended to the said act 37 Vict., chap. 51, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: SCHEDULE F. OATH OF VOTERS. (See section 38 of said act.) You swear (or solemnly affirm) that you are the person whose name is entered on the list of voters now shown to you as (name, residence and occupation of voter as entered on the list); that you are of the full age of twenty-one years, that you have not already voted at this election, and that you have not received any thing, nor has any thing been promised to you, either directly or indirectly, in order to induce you to vote at this election: So help you God. 15. If a person representing himself to be an elector or an elector, whose name appears on the list of voters, asks to vote |