Bergan v. New York Cent. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 21 March 1945
• Docket Number: No. 28341.,28341.
• Citation: Bergan v. New York Cent. R. Co., 390 Ill. 30, 60 N.E.2d 228 (Ill. 1945)
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. BERGAN, County Collector, v. NEW YORK CENT. R. CO.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

390 Ill. 30

60 N.E.2d 228

PEOPLE ex rel. BERGAN, County Collector,

v.NEW YORK CENT. R. CO.

No. 28341.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 21, 1945.

Appeal from Kankakee County Court; Charles D. Henry, Judge.

Application by the People, on the relation of Dan E. Bergen, County Collector, for a judgment against the New York Central Railroad Company for nonpayment of taxes for the year 1942 levied against its property for the non-high school tax in a non-high school district. The county court overruled the railroad company's objections to the tax levy, and it appeals, and the case was certified by the trial judge under rule 48 of the Supreme Court.

Reversed and remanded with directions.

Eva L. Minor, of Kankakee, for appellant.

Joseph J. Tolsom, State's Atty., Wayne H. Dyer, and Donald Gray, all of Kankakee, for appellee.

FULTON, Chief Justice.

Appellant seeks to reverse the judgment of the county court of Kankakee county overruling its objections to the tax levy made for the year 1942, for non-high school district taxes in a non-high school district and for non-high school district taxes in certain territories detached from the non-high school district.

The case was tried upon a stipulation of facts, and, as an agreed case, was certified by the trial judge under Rule 48 of this court.

The following four questions were certified by the trial judge and are at issue herein: Question No. 1: Did the county clerk of Kankakee county have authority to extend a rate of $1.17 for non-high school district tax, or is the rate which can be extended for said non-high school district limited by law to $1.00 on each one hundred dollars of assessed valuation? Question No. 2: Did the levy for non-high school bond purposes, as extended by the county clerk against the non-high school district at a rate of seventeen cents, against Detached Territory No. 3 at a rate of ten cents, and against Detached Territory No. 4 at a rate of eleven cents, violate the provisions of section 9 of article IX of the constitution of Illinois, Smith-Hurd Stats., which requires all taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same? Question No. 3: Is section 94f of the School Law unconstitutional and void in so far as it undertakes to authorize a board of education of a non-high school district to recoup a part of a bonded indebtedness from a territory which has been detached from said district, and in attempting to authorize such board of education to levy a tax against property which is no longer in said non-high school district and the voters of which had no opportunity to vote on the proposition of issuing bonds for the funding of its debt? Question No. 4: Did the county court err in entering judgment against defendant's property for non-high school tax in the sum of $699.26 and against defendant's property in Detached Territories Nos. 3 and 4 for $29.75 and $36.96, respectively?

The county collector of Kankakee county on the first Monday of October, 1943, applied to the county court for a judgment against the railway company for nonpayment of taxes for the year 1942. The company filed objections to the levy against its property for the non-high school tax in the non-high school district, amounting to $699.26, and further objected to the tax in the sum of $29.74 in Detached Territory No. 3 and the tax in the sum of $36.96 in Detached Territory No. 4.

The agreed statement of facts recites that the certificate of levy for the non-high school tax for 1942 calls for taxes extended at the rate of one dollar for educational purposes and seventeen cents for the purpose of paying principal and interest requirements on certain bonds issued as hereinafter set forth. The rate extended for Detached Territory No. 3 for the purpose of paying the prorata share of said detached territory, computed in accordance with section 94e of the School Law (Ill.Rev.Stat.1943, chap. 122, par. 102e) was ten cents on each one hundred dollars of assessed valuation, and a rate of eleven cents was extendd for the same purpose against property in Detached Territory No. 4.

It further appears that as of March 15, 1941, various tracts of land, among which were Detached Territory No. 3 and Detached Territory No. 4, were detached from the non-high school district. Further, on March 31, 1941, the board of education for the non-high school district, acting under authority claimed by section 94d of the School Law (Ill.Rev.Stat.1943, chap. 122, par. 102d), adopted a resolution providing for the issuance of $38,000 in funding bonds, for the purpose of satisfying unpaid tuition claims against the said non-high school district, which claims for tuition were incurred during the period commencing with the school year 1936-37 and ending with the school year 1939-40, during which latter period Detached Territories Nos. 3 and 4 were a part of the said non-high school district.

The proposition of the issuance of the bonds under section 94d was submitted to the voters of the non-high school district only, at a general election held April 12, 1941, which proposition was approved by a majority of the voters voting upon the resolution. The voters in the detached territories were given no opportunity to vote upon the issuance of the bonds.

Thereafter, the board of education certified to the county clerk the amount of money necessary to pay the bonds and accumulated interest, and in conformity with section 94d, the clerk extended an additional tax in the non-high school district of seventeen cents for the 1942 bond and interest requirements in the non-high school district, and further extended the rate of eleven cents per one hundred dollars valuation against property in Detached Territory No. 3, and the rate of ten cents per one hundred dollars valuation against property in Detached Territory No. 4, for the same purpose.

In his brief, the appellee confesses the validity of the objections to the tax in Detached Territory No. 3 in the sum of $29.74 and in Detached Territory No. 4 in the sum of $36.96, on the ground that rules laid down for establishing the necessary tax rate in recoupment cases in the detached territories were not followed.

Among other objections, the appellant contends that section 94f of the School Law (Ill.Rev.Stat.1943, chap. 122, par. 102f) is unconstitutional and void. We shall first consider this proposition.

Both section 94e (Ill.Rev.Stat.1943, chap. 122, par. 102e), added by amendment in 1937, and section 94f (Ill.Rev.Stat.1943, chap. 122, par. 102f), added by amendment in 1939, have been considered recently by this court. People ex rel. Hagler v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. Co., 380 Ill. 120, 43 N.E.2d 989. The objecting taxpayers, however, specifically waived any constitutional attack upon section 94f on the basic proposition that it undertook to authorize a board of education of a non-high school district ‘to recoup’ a part of the bonded indebtedness from a detached area. In view of this waiver, we considered the case apart from any question of constitutionality. The question involved here and the points raised squarely involve the constitutional validity of section 94f for the first time. Our first consideration, therefore, will be devoted to question No. 3, as certified by the county judge.

Section 94e of the School Law provides that a territory detached from a non-high school district should still be liable for indebtedness of the non-high school district incurred during the time the detached territory was a part of the non-high school district. This section also provides for the filing of a map with the county clerk showing the territory embraced in the district, both before and after the detachment proceedings, and a certification of the amount of the indebtedness owed at the time the boundaries were changed. It also provides that the board of education of the non-high school district should determine and certify to the county clerk the amount of tax required to pay the indebtedness, and, thereupon, the clerk is directed to extend a rate of tax upon all of the territory originally within the non-high school district.

Section 94f of the School Law applies to a non-high school district which has lost a part of its territory through detachment proceedings, and, subsequently, issues bonds for the payment of an indebtedness existing prior to the detachment and levies a tax to pay the principal and interest of the bonds as they become due. This section, which expired by its terms on July 1, 1941, made it the duty of the board of education of the non-high school district to recoup from the detached territory a proportionate amount of the tax required to pay the principal and...