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Every person and corporation entitled to the benefit of Sections 208 and 209 of this Article shall severally have a first lien against the assessment, any partial assessment, any reassessment and any bonds issued to represent any such assessment or reassessment, which lien may be enforced in the Superior Court. in and for said City and County, according to the custom and practice of such court. Such action must be commenced within 30 days from the date of filing such verified statement.
No assignment by the contractor of the whole or any part of the money or of such assessment, partial assessment, reassessment and/or bonds due or to become due him under the contract, or for extras in connection therewith, whether made before or after such verified claim is filed, shall be held to take priority over claims filed under Sections 209 and 210, inclusive, of this Article, and all such assignments shall have no effect in so far as claims hereunder are concerned.
If any person or corporation against whom any such claim is filed shall dispute its correctness or validity said Director may permit the contractor to whom the contract was awarded by said Director, or his assignee, to deliver to him a bond executed by a corporation authorized to issue surety bonds in the State of California, in a penal sum equal to 1¼ times the amount of such claim; said bond shall guarantee the payment of whatever sum such claimant may recover in an action on said claim. Upon the filing of such a bond, said Director may release such moneys, assessments, partial assessments, reassessments and/or bonds to which such contractor, or his assignees, otherwise shall be entitled. The sureties upon such last mentioned bond shall be jointly and severally liable, with the sureties upon the bond mentioned in Section 208 of this Article to such claimant.
Suits against the surety or sureties on the bonds mentioned in Sections 208 to 212, inclusive, of this Article may be brought by any claimant or his assigns, at any time after the claimant has ceased to perform labor or furnish materials or both and until the expiration of 150 days after the period within which verified claims may be filed as in this Article provided. The filing of such a verified claim shall not be a condition precedent to the maintenance of an action against the surety or sureties on the bond mentioned in Section 208 of this Article and an action on said bond may be maintained independently of any other action whatsoever. Upon the trial of any action mentioned in Sections 208 to 213, inclusive, of this Article the court shall award to the prevailing party a reasonable attorney's fee to be taxed as costs.
All work in this Article provided for must be done under the supervision and to the satisfaction of said Director; and said Director shall require all materials used in such work to be in accordance with the specifications therefor; and all contracts provided for in this Article must contain a provision to the effect hereinbefore in this Section set forth, and also a provision to the effect that in no case, except where it is otherwise provided in this Article, or the Charter of said City and County, will said City and County or any department or official thereof, be liable for any portion of the expense of said work, or for any damages resulting in the course of the performance thereof, or for any delinquency of persons or of property assessed.
When any such work shall have been completed to the satisfaction of said Director, he shall so declare by certificate, which shall be made a permanent part of the records of his office, and thereupon he shall cause to be delivered to the contractor a duplicate of such certificate.
When any work in, upon or over any public way shall have been completed according to contract, as herein provided for, said Director shall make an assessment to cover the sum due for the work performed and specified in said contract (including all incidental expenses), in conformity with the provisions of this Article. The assessment shall briefly refer to the contract, the work contracted for and performed, and shall show the amount to be paid therefor, together with any incidental expenses, the amount of each assessment, the name of the owner of each lot (if known to said Director, and if not known the word "unknown" shall be written opposite the number of the lot and the amount assessed against it), and the number of each lot assessed; and said assessment shall have attached thereto a diagram exhibiting the public ways or public way crossings on, in or over which the work has been done, and showing the relative location of each distinct lot to the work done, numbered to correspond with the numbers in the assessment. A mistake in the name of the owner shall not invalidate any assessment.
All incidental expenses incurred in connection with the work must be paid to said Director before the issuance of the warrant, assessment and diagram herein provided for.
(a) Assessment on Frontage Basis in Certain Cases. Where any work mentioned in this Article (manholes, lampholes, cesspools, culverts, crosswalks, piling and capping excepted) is done on either or both sides of the center line of any street for one block or less and further work of the same class opposite to the work already done is ordered to be done to complete the unimproved portion of said street, the assessment to cover the total expense of said work so ordered shall be made upon the lots or portions of lots only fronting the portions of the work so ordered.
Where the sidewalk area of any portion of a street has been officially abolished in whole or reduced in part, and paving or other improvement of the roadway of such street has been extended to the inner line of the said area so abolished, the lot or lots fronting such abolished or reduced sidewalk area shall be additionally assessable for the costs and expenses of such extended paving or other improvement.
(b) Assessment According to Estimate of Benefits. Immediately after the contractor has fulfilled his contract to the satisfaction of said Director, the said Director shall proceed to estimate upon the lands, lots or portions of lots within said assessment district, as shown by the diagram provided for in Section 195 of this Article, the benefits arising from such work and to be received by each such lot, portion of such lot, piece or subdivision of land, and shall thereupon assess upon and against said lands in said assessment district the total amount of the expense of such work, together with all incidental expenses, and in so doing shall assess said total sum upon the pieces, parcels, lots or portions of lots, and subdivisions of land, in said district, benefited by said work, to-wit: Upon each respectively in proportion to the benefits received by each of said several lots, portions of lots or subdivisions of land.
(c) Where Portion of Street Occupied by Tracks. The expense of all work on such portion of any street required by law to be kept in order by any person, company or corporation having railroad tracks thereon, shall be borne and paid for by such person, company or corporation, and shall be included in the assessment in this Article hereinbefore provided for. The provisions of this Subsection shall be applicable to any street whereon railroad tracks have been constructed and are being maintained by the City and County; and the City and County shall pay for all street work which, if such tracks were owned by a private person or corporation, would have to be paid for by such private person or corporation.
(d) Public Lands. Whenever any parcel of land belonging to the United States, the State of California, said City and County, or any public agent, mandatory, board or institution, and being in use in the performance of a public function, shall be included within the district declared by said Director, in his order declaring his intention, to be the district to be assessed to pay the expense of such work, said Director may, in his said order, declare that such parcels of land, or any of them, shall be omitted from the assessment thereafter to be made to cover the expense of such work. In the event of such declaration of omission, then the total expense of all such work shall be assessed on the remaining lots lying within such assessment district, without regard to such omitted parcels of land. If, however, said Director shall, in his said order declaring his intention, declare that said parcels of land so owned as aforesaid, or any of them, shall be included in the assessment, or if no declaration be made respecting such parcels of land, or any of them, then the respective sums which shall be assessed against said parcels of land so owned and used shall be paid out of funds in the treasury of said City and County theretofore appropriated for the purpose of street improvement; provided, however, that such assessments shall not be payable out of funds in said treasury, unless the Chief Administrative Officer and Controller of said City and County, in writing, consent thereto before said Director shall make his said order declaring his intention; provided further that all of the provisions of Section 192 of this Article must be complied with; and provided further that any such sum or sums so assessed against parcels of land so owned and used shall not be payable out of such City and County funds, when such sum or sums are paid by the owners of or bodies controlling such parcels of land.
(e) Owners May Perform Grading. Any owner or owners of lots or lands fronting upon any street, the width and grade of which have been established by the Supervisors, may perform at his or their own expense (after obtaining permission from the Director of Public Works so to do but before said Director has made his order of intention to recommend grading inclusive of this) any grading upon said street, not beyond its grade as then established and thereupon may procure, at his or their own expense, a certificate from the City Engineer setting forth the number of cubic yards of cutting and filling made by him or them in said grading, and the proportions performed by each owner; provided, however, that, as to each lot, but one such certificate shall be issued for such grading; and thereafter such owner may file said certificate in the office of said Department of Public Works. Said certificate shall be recorded in a properly indexed book kept for that purpose in the office of said Department of Public Works. Whenever thereafter the Supervisors order the grading of said street, or any portion thereof, on which any grading certified as aforesaid has been done, the bids and contract must express the price by the cubic yard for grading, and such owner or owners, and his or their successors in interest, shall be entitled to credit on the assessment upon his or their lots and lands fronting on said street for grading thereof, to the amount of the cubic yards of cutting and filling set forth in his or their said certificate, at the prices named in the contract for said grading; or, if the grade meanwhile has been legally changed, only for so much of said certified work as would be required for grading to the grade as changed. Such owner or owners shall not be entitled to any credit that may be in excess of the assessment for grading upon the lots and lands owned by him or them, and proportionately assessed for the whole of said grading. Said Director shall include in the assessment for the whole of said grading upon the same grade the number of cubic yards of grading set forth in any and all certificates so recorded in said office, or for the whole of said grading to the changed grade, so much of said certified work as would be required for grading thereto, and shall enter corresponding credits, deducting the same as payments upon the amounts assessed against the lot and lands owned respectively by said certified owners and their successors in interest; but said Director shall not credit any sums in excess of the assessments for the whole of the grading, which are made upon any lots and lands fronting upon said street and belonging to any such certified owners or their successors in interest.
(f) Credit for Work Other Than Grading. When any owner or owners of any lots and lands fronting on any street shall have heretofore done, or shall hereafter do any work, except grading, such street, in front of any block at his or their expense, and the Supervisors shall subsequently order any work to be done of the same class in front of the same block the work so done at the expense of such owner or owners shall be excepted from the order ordering the work to be done; but the work so done at the expense of such owner or owners shall be upon the official grade, and in condition satisfactory to the Director of Public Works at the time said order is passed.
To said assessment shall be attached a warrant which shall be signed by said Director and countersigned by the acting Secretary of said Department of Public Works. Said warrant shall be substantially in the following form:
By virtue hereof the Department of Public Works of the City and County of San Francisco, by the authority vested in it, does authorize (name of contractor) his (or their) agents or assigns, to demand, and receive the several assessments upon the assessment diagram hereto attached, and this shall be his (or their) warrant for the same.
Date
(Name of said Director), Director of Public Works.
Countersigned by (name of acting Secretary of Department of Public Works), Acting Secretary of the Department of Public Works.
Said warrant, assessment and diagram shall be recorded in both the office of said Department of Public Works and in the office of the Recorder of said City and County. When so recorded the several amounts assessed shall be and remain a lien upon the parcels of land assessed, respectively, and such lien shall so continue until it be fully paid and discharged of record. Such lien:
(a) Shall be subordinate to all special assessment liens previously imposed upon the same property, but shall have priority over all special assessment liens which may thereafter be created against said property;
(b) Shall be coequal to and independent of the lien for general ad valorem real property taxes;
(c) Shall be prior and superior to all other liens, claims and encumbrances except (i) easements constituting servitudes upon or burdens to said lands, (ii) water rights the record title to which is held separately from the title to said lands, and (iii) restrictions of record; and
(d) Shall not be subject to extinguishment by the sale of the property on account of the nonpayment of any taxes, except sale conducted to concurrently satisfy both unpaid ad valorem real property taxes and the unpaid special assessment.
(a) Bond for Installment Payments. When a property owner, as in this Article provided, gives a bond, in order that said assessment may be paid in installments, the unpaid balance of such bond shall continue to be a lien upon the parcel of land against which such bond shall be given until the expiration of two years after the date when the last installment payable under said bond shall become due. From the date of recordation of any warrant, assessment and diagram pursuant to the provisions, of this Article, all persons interested in such assessment and in all property against which it shall be a lien shall be deemed to have notice of the contents of such warrant, assessment and diagram.
(Amended by Ord. 91-81, App. 2/20/81)
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