Kimball v. the Merchants' Sav.

• Decision Date: 30 September 1878
• Citation: 89 Ill. 611,1878 WL 10096
• Parties: MARK KIMBALL, Collector, etc.v.THE MERCHANTS' SAVINGS, LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

89 Ill. 611

1878 WL 10096 (Ill.)

MARK KIMBALL, Collector, etc.

v.THE MERCHANTS' SAVINGS, LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1878.

APPEAL from the Appellate Court of the First District; the Hon. THEODORE D. MURPHY, presiding Justice, and GEO. W. PLEASANTS and J. M. BAILEY, Justices.

Mr. JOSEPH S. BONFIELD, for the appellant.

Mr. JOHN M. ROUNTREE, for the appellee.

Mr. JUSTICE SCOTT delivered the opinion of the Court:

This bill was filed by the Merchants' Savings, Loan and Trust Company, against Mark Kimball, collector of taxes for the town of South Chicago, to enjoin a portion of the tax assessed on its personal property for the year 1877. Except that portion of the taxes which it seeks to enjoin, the company has paid to the collector all taxes levied on its personal property, and only asks relief against that part which, it is averred, is without authority of law. As to the principal facts, there is no controversy between the parties. In the spring of 1877 the assessor of the town of South Chicago, in which complainant is assessed, received from the company a statement of its personal property liable to taxation, and placed upon it a valuation, as of the first of May, of $500,000, and it was so returned to the county clerk without change or modification. On the 10th of August the county clerk certified to the Auditor of State, in pursuance of section 98 of the Revenue law, an abstract of assessments of property in Cook county, as made by the assessors of the several towns, which included the valuation of complainant's property. On the 20th day of the same month the county board met as a board of equalization to equalize the assessments made by the assessors of the several towns of the county, in pursuance of the 97th section of the Revenue law, and, for the purpose of equalizing the assessments between the several towns, added 20 per cent to the assessed value of personal property in the town of South Chicago, but made no changes in other towns. As to railroad property and real estate no material changes were made in any of the towns. The per cent added to personal property in South Chicago increased the aggregate value of the assessed property in that town over $2,000,000, and, as a necessary consequence, increased, by a large per cent, the aggregate assessed value of the entire property of the county. That equalized value of the assessed property of the county, as made by the county board, the county clerk certified to the State Auditor and he submitted it to the State Board of Equalization, but whether that board ignored it or took action upon it, is a matter in dispute. It is certain, however, the State board directed that 57 per cent be added to the assessed value of personal property in Cook county. It is conceded, by stipulation, that the county clerk added to the assessment of $500,000, made on the personal property of complainant in South Chicago, 20 per cent, in conformity with the action of the county board, making the sum of $600,000, and to this sum added 57 per cent, the rate directed by the State board to be added to personal property in Cook county, making the sum of $942,000, and upon this latter sum he computed and extended the several kinds of taxes for the year 1877. It is also conceded, that neither complainant nor any of its officers had any actual or personal notice or knowledge of any proposed changes of the assessments in the town of South Chicago, or that the county board proposed in any way to change the assessment on the personal property of complainant, and that the company had no notice whatever other than the general notice published in a daily newspaper notifying all persons feeling themselves aggrieved by assessments in 1877 to present their complaints in writing to the county board, and of the time and place of the meeting of the committee on equalization. On the hearing, the circuit court entered a decree making the injunction previously awarded perpetual, and on appeal to the Appellate Court the decree was affirmed. The case is now to be heard in this court on the appeal of defendant.

It will not be denied, if there was a total want of authority in the county clerk to extend the tax against the property of complainant on the increased valuation as made by the county board, that equity has jurisdiction to restrain its collection. The principle of the cases in this court, on this subject, is, that a court of chancery has jurisdiction, and when invoked will assume to exercise it in all cases where the tax has been levied without authority of law, or where the property is not subject to taxation. Town of Lebanon v. Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Co. 77 Ill. 539. Our sole inquiry, therefore, will be, whether there is any authority for the action of the county board in adding 20 per cent to the assessed valuation of personal property in the town of South Chicago, by which complainant's assessment on personal property was so much enhanced. The decision depends mainly on the construction that shall be given to the...