Greeley v. People of State 1
| Decision Date | 30 September 1871 |
| Citation | 1871 WL 8077,60 Ill. 19 |
| Parties | SAMUEL S. GREELEY et al.v.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.a1 |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
APPEALS from the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. HENRY BOOTH, Judge, presiding.
Messrs. GEORGE SCOVILLE and W. E. FURNESS, for the appellants.
Mr. FRANCIS ADAMS, for the appellees.
In these cases, a judgment was rendered against certain lands in the town of Cicero, county of Cook, for the amount of the State, county, town and school taxes alleged to be due thereon, and also for a special assessment levied for the improvement of a highway, called Riverside Parkway. These taxes, and the special assessment, were levied by virtue of certain powers given in the act incorporating the town of Cicero, to be found in Private Laws of 1867, vol. 3, p. 385, and the first objection taken by appellants is, that the act is unconstitutional. It is claimed that the constitution of 1848, by requiring the legislature to pass a general law for township organization, forbade, by implication, the granting to towns of special charters. We consider this position wholly untenable. It is true, the court held, in The People v. Brown, 11 Ill. 478, that the legislature could not impose a general township organization upon the people of a county in any other manner than that provided in the constitution. But that decision has no relation to the present question. There was nothing in the constitution of 1848 prohibiting the general assembly from granting special municipal charters. In the absence of a prohibition, this power clearly belonged to that body, and it could exercise it as well in regard to a town six miles square, as to a village with less territory. This was all matter of legislative discretion.
It is further claimed, that the provisions in the charter authorizing special assessments, are void, because they do not require such assessments to be made upon the principle of an equation between benefits and burdens. But, nevertheless, the general grant of power was valid. It was not necessary to prescribe the precise mode of its exercise. When the town desired to avail itself of this power, it would, of course, be necessary to exercise it in the manner required by the constitution, and not impose an assessment in excess of special benefits, nor distribute the assessment in unequal proportions over the property benefited. Larned v. City of Chicago, 34 Ill. 203.
This brings us to an objection that is well taken. The ordinance directing this special assessment, orders the sum of $125,200.11 to be assessed “upon the real estate deemed benefited by such improvement, in proportion, as nearly as...
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City of Chicago v. Town Of Cicero
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