People ex rel. King v. Leonard

• Decision Date: 21 June 1917
• Docket Number: No. 11182.,11182.
• Citation: 279 Ill. 159,116 N.E. 623
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. KING, County Collector, v. LEONARD et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

279 Ill. 159

116 N.E. 623

PEOPLE ex rel. KING, County Collector,

v.LEONARD et al.

No. 11182.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 21, 1917.

Appeal from Ford County Court; M. L. McQuiston, Judge.

Action by the People, on the relation of Claude L. King, County Collector, against George M. Leonard and others. From an adverse judgment, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

Farmer, J., dissenting.

Dobbins & Dobbins, of Champaign, and Phillips & Swanson, of Gibson City, for appellant.

Schneider & Schneider, of Paxton, for appellees.

DUNN, J.

The Sangamon and Drummer drainage district of the counties of Champaign and Ford was organized in the county court of Champaign county under the Levee Act. In February, 1915, the commissioners filed a petition in that court representing that the main ditch had been constructed in accordance with the order of the court, and that certain lands within the district, located mostly within the corporate limits of the town of Gibson City, a city of over 2,000 inhabitants, needed additional drainage; that the cost of constructing the additional work was estimated at $38,273.96; that certain described lands within the district would be benefited by the work; and praying for an order authorizing the construction of the work and the assessment of the cost against the lands described as benefited thereby, including streets and alleys. The proceedings resulted in an order of the county court confirming the special assessment upon the lands described. The Illinois Central Railroad Company, whose property had been assessed, prosecuted a writ of error, and the judgment of confirmation was reversed, and a rehearing was denied at the April term, 1916. Sangamon and Drummer Drainage District v. Illinois Central R. Co., 272 Ill. 374, 112 N. E. 64. At the June term, 1916, of the county court of Ford county, the collector of that county applied for judgment for the second installment of the special assessment against the property of the appellees which had been assessed. The appellees objected upon the ground that the county court of Champaigncounty was without jurisdiction to confirm the assessment and that its order was therefore void. The court sustained the objections and entered an order denying the application for judgment, from which appellant appealed.

The order of confirmation of the assessment was erroneous, but it was not affected, so far as appellees' property was concerned, by the judgment of reversal in the case of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The judgment remains in full force against their property and was sufficient basis for rendering a judgment against it unless it was void for want of jurisdiction in the court to render it.

Section 59 of the Levee Act provides for the formation of subdistricts from lands in particular localities in a drainage district which are in need of more minute and complete drainage and for the levy of a special assessment of benefits and damages upon the lands of the subdistricts so formed, arising from the construction of the additional ditches, drains, outlets, and other works required for such more minute and complete drainage. The petition filed by the commissioners, however, did not ask for the formation of a subdistrict, or state that any lands in particular localities were in need of more minute and complete drainage; neither did it, nor the proceedings under it, conform to...