Levy v. the City of Chicago.

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Mr. JUSTICE CRAIG delivered the opinion of the Court:
• Citation: Levy v. the City of Chicago., 113 Ill. 650 (Ill. 1885)
• Decision Date: 15 May 1885
• Parties: JAMES LEVYv.THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

113 Ill. 650

JAMES LEVY

v.THE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed at Ottawa May 15, 1885.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the County Court of Cook county; the Hon. RICHARD PRENDERGAST, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. MOSES & NEWMAN, for the appellant.

Mr. G. M. HAYNES, and Mr. F. S. WINSTON, for the appellee.Mr. JUSTICE CRAIG delivered the opinion of the Court:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the county court of Cook county, confirming a special assessment which had been made by the city of Chicago, for the improvement of Ogden avenue. The first section of the ordinance under which the assessment was made, is as follows:

“Section 1. That Ogden avenue, from the south line of West Madison street to the north line of West Van Buren street, be and the same is hereby ordered curbed with curbstones, (excepting where curbstones are already set between said points,) said curbstones to be equal to the best quality of Athens stone, not less than four feet long, three feet deep, and five inches in thickness, with top edge full and square, each stone to have a straight base the whole length, and to be firmly bedded upon flat stones, each stone to be bushhammered on the top surface, and twelve inches down from the top; and that said avenue be curbed, etc., (describing it fully); that said avenue, from the south line of West Madison street to the north curb line of West Twelfth street, (excepting a space sixteen feet wide in the middle of said street between said points, and excepting the intersection of Ashland avenue, West Adams street, and West Jackson street,) be and the same is hereby ordered filled and graded to within eleven inches of the grade of the pavement, and paved,”--(minutely describing the paving.)

The objection interposed by appellant to the confirmation of the assessment was, that the ordinance upon which the assessment was based is void for indefiniteness, in not describing the filling of said street, what materials were to be used in filling said street, and that there was no such description as would warrant the commissioners to estimate the cost thereof.

Section 134, chapter 24, of the Revised Statutes of 1874, page 234, requires the city council, when an improvement is to be made by special assessment, to pass an ordinance specifying the nature, character, locality and description of such improvement. Under this statute it is plain if the ordinance, which may be regarded as the foundation for the assessment, does not contain a description of the nature, character and locality of...