Harding v. People

• Decision Date: 18 February 1903
• Parties: HARDING v. PEOPLE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

202 Ill. 122

66 N.E. 962

HARDING

v.PEOPLE. ^*

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 18, 1903.

Appeal from circuit court, Cook county; Chas. G. Neeley, Judge.

Action by the people against George F. Harding to recover a general tax. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Wm. J. Ammen, for appellant.

Robert S. Iles, Robert D. Martin, and Stillman B. Jamieson, for the People.

WILKIN, J.

This is an action of debt by the people against George F. Harding, appellant, begun in the circuit court of Cook county to recover the general taxes for the years 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, assessed and levied to Chicago. The proceeding addition to Chicago. The proceeding is brought under section 230 of chapter 120 (3 Starr & C. Ann. St. p. 3501). Upon a hearing before the circuit court without a jury, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for the sum of $2,123.05, from which the defendant prosecutes an appeal to this court.

The chief error urged by appellant is that the plaintiff failed to prove that George F. Harding was the owner of the property against which the owner of the property record shows that the plaintiff offered in evidence a certified copy of the collector's warrants of 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, the tax judgment, sale, redemption, and forfeiture record for the year 1899, showing the forfeiture of the premises in question for that year and prior years, as entered in the year 1900 for the taxes of 1899. Section 230, supra, provides: ‘In any such suit or trial for forfeited taxes, the fact that real estate or personal property is assessed to a person, firm or corporation, shall be prima facie evidence that such person, firm or corporation was the owner thereof, and liable for the taxes for the year or years for which the assessment was made, and such fact may be proved by the introduction in evidence of the proper assessment book or roll, or other competent proof.’ The foregoing proof, under the provisions of this section, constituted a prima facie case, and established to that extent the ownership of the property in question. The defendant, to defeat that prima facie case, then offered in evidence a deed purporting to be made by George F. Harding to the Chicago Real Estate, Loan & Trust Company, dated June 10, 1896, acknowledged July 1 and recorded July 2, 1896, for an expressed consideration of $5, conveying ‘all interest in the following described real estate, to-wit: Any and all lands, of every kind and description, claimed or owned by me in the state of Illinois, and all lots and lands, of every description, in the city of Chicago, in which I have any right, title, or interest whatsoever, situated in the state of Illinois,’ etc. Objection was made to this deed upon the ground that it was too general in its terms, did not apply to any...