People ex rel. Goedtner v. Pederson

• Decision Date: 11 April 1906
• Citation: 77 N.E. 251,220 Ill. 554
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. GOEDTNER, County Treasurer, v. PEDERSON et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

220 Ill. 554

77 N.E. 251

PEOPLE ex rel. GOEDTNER, County Treasurer,

v.PEDERSON et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 20, 1905.

Rehearing Denied April 11, 1906.

Appeal from La Salle County Court; W. H. Hinebaugh, Judge.

Application by the people on the relation of John Goedtner, county treasurer, for judgment and order of sale against the lands of E. H. Pederson and others. From a judgment denying the application, relator appeals. Reversed.C. S. Cullen and McDougall & Chapman, for appellant.

Browne & Wiley and John H. Armstrong, for appellees.

This was an application by the county collector of La Salle county, made to the county court of that county, for judgment and order of sale against certain property belonging to the appellees, claimed to be delinquent on account of unpaid taxes for the year 1904, extended against said property by virtue of an appropriation ordinance and tax levy ordinance passed by the village of Sheridan. The appellees filed written objections questioning the validity of the tax, on the ground that their lands were not included within the corporate limits of the village of Sheridan, and were therefore not subject to the village tax extended against them. Upon the hearing before the county court the parties stipulated that the facts are as follows, but reserved the right to object to the competency thereof as evidence: On July 26, 1873, a municipal corporation, known as the village of Sheridan, was incorporated under the laws of this state. The lands of the objectors were included within the corporate limits of said village, but were afterwards, and prior to March 5, 1902, legally disconnected therefrom. On the last-mentioned date the state's attorney of La Salle county filed in the circuit court of said county a petition for leave to file an information in the nature of a quo warranto against the persons then holding the offices of president and trustees of the village of Sheridan, for the purpose of ousting the said president and trustees from office and declaring the organization of the village null and void. Leave was granted, the information was filed, and on March 18, 1902, a judgment was entered finding that said village was not duly and legally organized, and ousting the said president and trustees from office. No appeal was prayed or taken from this judgment, but in August, 1903, the cause was brought to this court by writ of error, and on December 16, 1903, the judgmentof the circuit court was reversed and the cause remanded to the circuit court, with directions to overrule the demurrer to one of the pleas filed to the information. Soule v. People, 205 Ill. 618, 69 N. E. 22. Upon the remanding order being filed, the cause was redocketed in the circuit court, and was afterwards, on April 22, 1905, dismissed by the state's attorney. After the entry of the judgment of ouster in the circuit court the president and board of trustees ceased holding municipal meetings, and from that time up to April 28, 1903, no corporate business was transacted. After the entry of the judgment of ouster, and before the last-mentioned date, a petition, in due form and with the requisite number of signers, was presented to the county court of La Salle county, praying for the organization of the village of Sheridan. Thereafter such proceedings were had that on April 28, 1903, which was about four months before the writ of error above mentioned was sued out of this court, the county court of La Salle county entered an order finding said village of Sheridan to be duly incorporated. The territory contained in the village thus incorporated included all the lands in the original village of Sheridan, and, in addition thereto, the lands of the objectors, which had been theretofore disconnected from said original village. The new corporation included 11 adults and 14 children who did not reside upon territory included within the old village. On May 26, 1903, an election was held within the new village and a president and six trustees were elected, and they and their successors have since performed the duties of their several offices. On June 17, 1903, the Secretary of State issued a certificate to the effect that the village of Sheridan was duly incorporated on April 28, 1903. The taxes objected to were extended by the county clerk of La Salle county upon a certified copy of a tax levy ordinance duly passed by the acting president and board of trustees of the new organization of said village. Upon the hearing in the county court the county collector objected to the competency, as evidence, of all facts, stated in the stipulation, existing prior to the incorporation of the village of Sheridan on April 28, 1903. The court overruled this objection of the county collector and admitted all facts shown by the stipulation in evidence. The certificate of the Secretary of State, dated June 17, 1903, to the effect that the village of Sheridan was legally organized and incorporated on April 28, 1903, as a village under the laws of the state of Illinois, was also introduced in evidence by the county collector, as well as the formal proof prescribed by the statute to be made upon application for judgment for delinquent taxes. The county court entered judgment sustaining the objections of the appellees and abating all of the village taxes extended against their land. This appeal is prosecuted from that judgment by the county collector in the name of the people of the state of Illinois.

SCOTT, J. (after stating the facts).

The only question arising upon this record is whether the facts contained in the stipulation constitute a bar to the collection of the tax. Appellees' defense in the court below was that the village of Sheridan organized in 1903, which was the one that included their lands, had no existence, because of the fact that a prior corporation of the same name and organized under the same statute occupied...