Fajder v. Village of Aitkin
| Decision Date | 21 November 1902 |
| Docket Number | 13,199 - (163) |
| Citation | 92 N.W. 332,87 Minn. 445 |
| Parties | ANDREW FAJDER and Others v. VILLAGE OF AITKIN |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Petition on Rehearing Filed January 7, 1902
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the district court for Aitkin county, McClenahan, J. Reversed.
Illegal Special Assessment -- Injunction.
Where proceedings are instituted to enforce the collection of a special assessment for sewer construction, under the provisions of Laws 1901, c. 167, a property owner has an ample remedy at law for an illegal assessment, under G.S 1894, § 1584, and cannot maintain an action in equity to restrain and enjoin the village authorities from transmitting to the auditor of the county the statement provided for by section 5, chapter 167, supra.
E. H. Krelwitz and J. C. Hessian, for appellant.
F. E. Ebner, for respondents.
This action was brought by plaintiffs, owners of real property, against the village of Aitkin, to restrain and enjoin it from collecting or attempting to collect, or from transmitting to the county auditor that collection might be enforced, a statement of the amount of an annual installment claimed to be due from such owners on account of the construction of a sewer in front of their property, and also from issuing orders in settlement of the unpaid balance due on account of this construction.
On the complaint, answer, and reply, the court below granted plaintiff's motion for judgment on the pleadings, and from the judgment thereafter entered defendant appeals.
The village proceeded in all that was done in attempted compliance with the provisions of Laws 1901, c. 167, and was about to furnish the county auditor with the statement for an assessment, provided for in section 5, when this action was brought.
On appeal, it is claimed, on behalf of the defendant village, that the plaintiffs have an adequate remedy at law, and for that reason, under the well-known rule, cannot maintain the present action in equity. In this contention we agree with counsel for defendant village. By the terms of Laws 1901, c. 167, § 5, it is provided that after the sewer is completed (which in this instance was in December, 1901) a statement of the amount due as one of three annual installments to be paid by property holders shall be transmitted with the village taxes for that year to the county auditor, and thereupon he shall insert this amount, with other taxes, in the tax duplicate annually transmitted by him to the county treasurer for collection, and that payment of the same shall be enforced with other taxes, and the sum due shall be collected in like manner. Briefly stated, this provision of the law requires the amount of an assessment against real property, growing out of the construction of a sewer, to be collected, and its payment enforced, as other taxes are collected and payment enforced, in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 1894, § 1578, et seq. Under the provisions of section 1623, the tax lien upon real property attaches from and includes the first day of May in the year in which such taxes are levied, -- in this case the year 1902.
For the purposes of the lien, and for the enforcement and collection of the tax, the procedure as to the amount levied for a sewer is precisely the same as for taxes levied for general purposes; and the property holder has the same remedy in case he has a defense or objection to the special assessment or levy for sewer purposes as he has in any other case, or as to any other item of taxation. Under the provisions of the tax law (section 1584), he may file his answer setting forth his defense or objection to one or more...
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