People ex rel. Carr v. Illinois Cent. R. Co.
| Decision Date | 06 April 1923 |
| Docket Number | No. 15129.,15129. |
| Citation | 138 N.E. 593,307 Ill. 265 |
| Parties | PEOPLE ex rel. CARR, County Collector, v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. et al. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Proceeding by the People, on the relation of Patrick J. Carr, County Collector, for the sale of lands for delinquent taxes, to which the Illinois Central Railroad Company and others filed objections. Judgment for the objectors, and the petitioner appeals.
Affirmed.
Appeal from Cook County Court; F. S. Righeimer, Judge.
Robert E. Crowe, State's Atty., George F. Gorman, and William H. Duval, all of Chicago (Hayden N. Bell and W. W. De Armond, both of Chicago, of counsel), for appellant.
John G. Drennan, Vernon W. Foster, Russell B. James, Winston, Strawn & Shaw, and Edgar R. Hart, all of Chicago (Walter S. Horton, of Chicago, of counsel), for appellees.
The county collector of Cook county applied to the county court for judgment and order of sale of lands and lots delinquent for taxes for the year 1921. The appellees, the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Michigan Central Railroad Company, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, severally filed objections to the taxes against 71/100ths of a mile of railroad property in the city of Chicago, assessed to the St. Charles Air Line Railway Company as main track, second main track, side track, and turn outs. Each objector alleged its ownership of an undivided one-fourth of the property, and the objections were consolidated. On a hearing the objections were sustained, so far as the property was assessed and taxed as a separate and distinct railroad of the St. Charles Air Line Railway Company and not to the real owners, and so far as the assessed value was in excess of the value of the property as a part of the respective railroads of the objectors. Judgment was entered accordingly, from which the collector appealed.
There is not, and never has been, any corporation existing in fact or known as the St. Charles Air Line Railway Company; but the four railroad companies, the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Michigan Central Railroad Company, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, in 1852 purchased the strip of land in question for right of way from a connection with the Illinois Central railroad to the west bank of the South branch of the Chicago river, and built thereon at their joint expense tracks connecting their railroad systems for interchange of business. Each railroad company is the owner of an undivided one-fourth interest in the connection and tracks, and they were used only for the contemplated purpose until 1881. In that year the Illinois Central Railroad Company constructed its western line from the main line to Omaha, Neb., under the name of Chicago, Madison & Northern railroad, and adopted tracks on this property, already acquired and constructed, as a part of its continuous line of railroad to Omaha. Passenger and freight trains have run thereon as a part of the line. In 1899 an ordinance of the city of Chicago was passed requiring the railroad companies to elevate their tracks, and that was done. The separate interestsof the railroad companies were assessed to them severally, but in 1920 the state tax commission assessed the property as an independent railroad of the St. Charles Air Line Railway Company. A like assessment was made in 1921, and the tax objected to was levied on that assessment. The assessments of the several railroad systems for 1921 were proved, showing that the assessment of this property per foot as main track, second main track, and side track was very many times greater than the assessments of the several railroads, and many times what the assessment would have been if the property had been assessed as the property of the real owners, as parts of their...
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