Justice v. City of Logansport

• Decision Date: 03 April 1885
• Docket Number: 12,087
• Citation: 101 Ind. 326
• Parties: Justice v. The City of Logansport
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

101 Ind. 326

Justice v. The City of Logansport

No. 12,087

Supreme Court of Indiana

April 3, 1885

From the Cass Circuit Court.

Judgment affirmed.

D. C Justice, for appellant.

J. C Nelson and Q. A. Myers, for appellee.

OPINION

Elliott J.

The appellant foreclosed a mortgage executed to him by Jacob J. Puterbaugh, and acquired title under the sale made on the decree. In 1877 the city of Logansport assessed taxes against the real estate embraced in the mortgage amounting to $ 600. At the time the taxes for 1877 accrued Puterbaugh was the owner of the property, and was also the owner of $ 10,000 worth of personal property subject to seizure for the taxes assessed against him. State and county taxes were assessed against the property for the years 1877, 1878 and 1879, and in the latter year the property was sold to pay the delinquent and current State and county taxes. The appellant was the purchaser at the sale, and received a deed in due course of law. He seeks by the present suit to restrain the city from enforcing the taxes assessed by it against the real estate bought by him at the sale for State and county taxes.

The theory of the appellant is that the title acquired through the sale made for State and county taxes swept away all liens of the city, and vested in him the property discharged from all liens for municipal taxes.

This theory is constructed on an unsubstantial foundation. Taxes levied by a municipal corporation are levied for a public purpose and by public officers. A municipal corporation is part of the government; it is a governmental organization invested with the powers of government over a designated locality. One of the oldest as well as one of the best definitions of a municipal corporation is, "an investing the people of the place with the local government thereof." Cuddon v. Eastwick, 1 Salk. 193. Cities are much older governmental institutions than counties, and they were influential agencies in securing stable and liberal government centuries before counties were organized. Robertson says: "The institution of cities into communities, corporations, or bodies politic, and granting them the privilege of municipal jurisdiction, contributed more, perhaps, than any other cause to introduce regular government, police, and arts, and to diffuse them over Europe." Chancellor Kent and Judge Dillon accept as correct De Tocqueville's theory, that municipal corporations are important governmental institutions, and essential to the preservation of free government. 2 Kent Com. (12th ed.), 275; 1 Dillon Munic. Corp. (3d ed.), section 9, n. 2. The chancellor says: "Public corporations are such as are created by the government for political purposes, as counties, cities, towns and villages; they are invested with subordinate legislative powers, to be exercised for local purposes connected with the public good." Counties do not, therefore, rank higher than cities; they are not as ancient; they are not more important instrumentalities of government, nor have they more...