Crozer v. People ex rel. Hanberg

• Decision Date: 16 December 1903
• Citation: Crozer v. People ex rel. Hanberg, 206 Ill. 464, 69 N.E. 489 (Ill. 1903)
• Parties: CROZER v. PEOPLE ex rel. HANBERG, County Treasurer.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

206 Ill. 464

69 N.E. 489

CROZER

v.PEOPLE ex rel. HANBERG, County Treasurer. ^*

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 16, 1903.

Appeal from Cook County Court; O. N. Carter, Judge.

Action by the people, on the relation of John J. Hanberg, county treasurer, against Samuel A. Crozer.From a judgment for relator, defendant appeals.Reversed.

Taylor & Martin, for appellant.

James H. Wilkerson, Co. Atty., William F. Struckmann, Asst. Co. Atty., and Frank L. Shepard, for appellee.

SCOTT, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment and order of sale for taxes of 1902, entered against the real estate of appellant on the 28th of July, 1903, by the county court of Cook county, Ill.In 1899 the board of assessors in that county assessed the real estate involved in this proceeding, which is located in the town of South Chicago, in Cook county, at the sum of $86,205.The board of review in that year increased the valuation, fixing it at $90,515.The State Board of Equalization in the same year decreased the valuation, fixing it at $85,889; and upon this latter valuation taxes were extended against the property for the years 1899, 1900, and 1901.In 1902 the board of review of Cook county notified 10 owners of taxable real estate in the town of South Chicago, in that county, of a proposed increase in the assessment of all the real estate in the town of South Chicago.In pursuance of such notice, and after a hearing, a horizontal increase was made in the valuation of all the real estate in that town; and in accordance with that action the valuation of appellant's real estate was increased to and fixed at the sum of $105,000 by the board of review, and taxes were extended against this property upon this latter valuation for the year 1902.Appellant paid all the taxes extended against the property in question, computed upon a valuation of $85,889-that being the valuation fixed in 1899-but declined to pay the taxes extended upon the valuation in excess of $85,889; the sum of the taxes extended on such increase in the valuation being $1,125.11.The county collector applied to the county court at the July term, 1903, for judgment against the property for these unpaid taxes, whereupon appellant appeared and filed his written objections, the substance of which was that, under the law of this state, real estate was to be assessed in the year 1899, and quadrennially thereafter, and that its assessed valuation could not be increased in any of the intervening years between 1899 and 1903 unless new or added improvements were placed thereon after April 1, 1899, while the position of appellee is that the assessing officers have the power to increase or reduce the assessment of real estate during the intervening years if the actual value of such real estate changes, from any cause whatever, during those years.The issue thus presented is the only matter for our determination, and involves a construction of certain sections of ‘An act for the assessment of property and providing the means therefor, and to repeal a certain act therein named,’ approved February 25, 1898, in force July 1, 1898(Hurd's Rev. St. 1901, p. 1494).Section 9 of that act, so far as applicable, provides: ‘All real property subject to taxation under the general revenue laws of the state, including real estate becoming taxable for the first time shall be listed in the name of the owner thereof by such owners, or persons required by law, or their agents, or the officers provided by law, and assessed for the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine (1899), and every fourth year thereafter, with reference to the amount owned on the first day of April in the year in which the same is assessed, including all property purchased on that day, which assessment shall be known as the general assessment, and as modified or equalized or changed as provided by law, shall be the assessment upon which taxes shall be levied and extended during the quadrennial period for which the same is made.’Section 10 requires the county clerk, before April 1, 1899, and every fourth year thereafter, to furnish duplicate lists of real estate to be assessed, and annually to make up lists, in duplicate, of real estate which is taxable and real estate which shall become taxable for the first time and which is not already listed, and lists of real estate which has been subdivided and not listed by the proper description.Section 11 requires the assessing officers, on or before April 1st in each year, to call upon the clerk and receive the assessment books and blanks for that year.Section 12 is as follows: ‘The assessor shall, before the first day of June in the year 1899 and every fourth year thereafter, in person or by his deputy, actually view and determine as near as practicable the value of each tract or lot of land listed for taxation as of the first day of April of each year, and assess the same at the value required by law, setting down the sum in proper columns prepared therefor in duplicate books furnished him.In making such assessments he shall set down his valuation of improved tracts and lots in one column, and his value of unimproved tracts and lots in another column.He shall, also, between the first day of April and the first day of June in each intervening year, list and assess in like manner all real property which shall become taxable and which is not upon the general assessment, and also make and return a list of all new or added buildings, structures or other improvements of any kind, the value of which shall not have been previously added to or included in the valuation of the tract or lot on which such improvements have been erected or placed, specifying the tract or lot on which each of said improvements has been erected or placed, the kind of improvement and the value which, in his opinion, has been added to such tract or lot by the erection thereof; and in case of the destruction or injury by fire, flood, cyclone, storm or otherwise, or removal of any structures of any kind, or of the destruction of or any injury to orchard, timber, ornamental trees or groves, the value of which shall have been included in any former valuation of the tract or lot on which the same stood, the assessor shall determine as near as practicable how much the value of such tract or lot has been diminished in consequence of such destruction or injury, and make return thereof.And in case any assessor shall fail or neglect so to do, then the supervisor of assessment shall, in the case of such new or added improvements, assess the same according to the assessment of the same property in the general assessment, and in the case of such destruction shall abate from the assessment of the tracts or lots so damaged or lessened the proper proportion thereof, estimated according to the same principles; in counties containing 125,000 or more inhabitants such books shall be made up by townships.’Section 13 provides that the assessor shall, from time to time, make such alterations in the description of real estate as may be necessary, and, where it has been subdivided since making the general assessment, shall change the descriptions to correspond with the subdivisions, and properly distribute the assessment according to the new descriptions, and, in case of a vacation of a subdivision, shall make readjustment of the assessment accordingly.Section 14 of the act is as follows: ‘On or before the first day of June in each year, other than the year of the general assessment, the assessor shall determine the amount, in his opinion, of any change in the value of any tracts or lots or lands, if any such change has taken place and is not already entered in the assessment books, determining such change in value as of the first day of April of that year, and add to or deduct from the assessment accordingly, setting down the amount of such change in a proper column in the assessment books.’Section 34 of the act requires the board of review to meet each year for the purpose of revising the assessment of property, and authorizes them to revise the entire assessment, or any part thereof, of any taxpayer.Section 38 of the act authorizes and requires the board of review, in counties containing 125,000 or more inhabitants, to meet from time to time, and whenever necessary, to consider and act upon complaints, and to further revise the assessment of real property as may be just and necessary.By section 35 this board is given full power over the...