City of Lawrenceville v. Hennessey

• Decision Date: 21 April 1910
• Citation: 244 Ill. 464,91 N.E. 670
• Parties: CITY OF LAWRENCEVILLE v. HENNESSEY et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

244 Ill. 464

91 N.E. 670

CITY OF LAWRENCEVILLE

v.HENNESSEY et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 21, 1910.

Appeal from Lawrence County Court; J. A. Benson, Judge.

Proceeding by the city of Lawrenceville for a special assessment. From a judgment confirming assessments as reduced, T. R. Hennessey and another appeal. Reversed and remanded.W. F. Foster and P. W. Barnes, for appellants.

McGaughey & Tohill, for appellee.

CARTWRIGHT, J.

Appellee, city of Lawrenceville, in Lawrence county, began this proceeding by filing its petition in the county court of said county for a special assessment to pay for that part of a connected system of sewers located in sewer district No. 3. The county court overruled legal objections interposed by the appellants, T. R. Hennessey and P. W. Barnes, and the question of benefits was submitted to a jury. Lands of Hennessey were assessed in that district at $1,061, and the jury reduced the assessment to $800. The lands of P. W. Barnes were assessed at $500, and the jury reduced the amount to $300. The court confirmed the assessments as reduced and appellants appealed from the judgment.

The board of local improvements of the city of Lawrenceville adopted a general scheme of sewers for the city with an outlet in the Embarrass river, and divided the city into four sewer districts. On July 2, 1909, the board presented to the city council reports and estimates together with four ordinances, one for each district. The ordinanceswere passed and approved on that day. Section 38 of the local improvement act (Hurd's Rev. St. 1908, c. 24, § 544) provides that upon the filing of a petition in court for a special assessment the superintendent of special assessments in cities where such officer is provided for by law, otherwise some competent person appointed by the president of the board of local improvements, shall make a true and impartial assessment of the cost of said improvement. On the same day that the ordinances were passed, and before the filing of any petition, the president of the board of local improvements appointed Guy W. Courter to make the assessments in the several districts and Courter proceeded to make the same. On July 16, 1909, the city filed a petition for the special assessment involved in this case in district No. 3, and thereupon Courter filed his assessment roll on the same day.

One of the objections was that the assessment was made by a person not legally qualified to make the same by reason of his being a nonresident of the city and county. Courter testified that he resided in Mt. Carmel, in Wabash county, and had never resided in Lawrenceville or Lawrence county, and that he made the assessments under an agreement to make the four assessment rolls for $400, provided they went through, and if they failed he was to get nothing. Section 6 of article 6 of the cities and villages act (Hurd's Rev. St. 1908, c. 24, § 77) provides that no person shall be eligible to any office, except that of city engineer or attorney of an incorporated village, who is not a qualified elector of the city or village and who shall not have resided therein at least one year next preceding his election or appointment. In cities having a population of 50,000 or more there is the office of superintendent of special assessments, but there is no such office in cities of the population of Lawrenceville, where the president of the board of local improvements is authorized to appoint some competent person to make an assessment. The person so appointed is not technically an officer, but is an agent or employé for a single and specific purpose, whose functions are at an end upon the completion of his work. An office is a public position which does not end with the performance of a particular duty (People v. Loeffler, 175 Ill. 585, 51 N. E. 785) but the Legislature evidently regarded the person appointed to make an assessment as an officer, since he is called an ‘officer’ in defining his duties in section 39 of the local improvement act (Hurd's Rev. St. 1908, c. 24, § 545). He is to be a competent person, which means legally qualified as well as fit and capable to perform the duty imposed upon him. The Legislature never could have intended that a nonresident should exercise authority and functions in making a special assessment in a city with a population of less than 50,000, when a superintendent of assessments, exercising the same authority and functions in a city of larger population, must be a qualified elector who has resided in the city for one year. It would be unreasonable to hold that the Legislature meant by the language used to include aliens, nonresidents or minors, provided only they...