People Ex Rel. Louis C. Huck v. the Graceland Cemetery Co..

• Decision Date: 30 September 1877
• Citation: People Ex Rel. Louis C. Huck v. the Graceland Cemetery Co.., 86 Ill. 336, 1877 WL 9728, 29 Am.Rep. 32 (Ill. 1877)
• Parties: THE PEOPLE ex rel. Louis C. Huck,v.THE GRACELAND CEMETERY COMPANY.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

86 Ill. 336

1877 WL 9728 (Ill.)

29 Am.Rep. 32

THE PEOPLE ex rel. Louis C. Huck,

v.THE GRACELAND CEMETERY COMPANY.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1877.

APPEAL from the County Court of Cook County; the Hon. M. R. M. WALLACE, Judge, presiding.

Mr. JOHN M. ROUNTREE and Mr. JOHN P. WILSON, for the appellant.

Mr. WILLIAM C. REYNOLDS and Messrs. LAWRENCE, CAMPBELL & LAWRENCE, for the appellee.

Mr. JUSTICE CRAIGdelivered the opinion of the Court:

This was an application for judgment against certain lands owned by Graceland Cemetery Company, for the taxes of 1875.The company appeared in the county court and objected to the rendition of judgment, on the ground that the property was exempt from taxation under section 5 of its charter, which declares:

“All lots sold for burial purposes by said cemetery company, when conveyed by the corporation to individual proprietors, shall be indivisible, but may be held and owned in undivided shares, and shall be free from taxation and execution and attachment, provided, that no one person shall hold, at any one time, more than four lots so exempted; and all estate, real or personal, held by the company, actually used by the corporation for burial purposes, or for the general uses of lot holders or subservient to burial uses, and which shall have been platted and recorded as cemetery grounds, shall likewise be exempt as above.”

The county court sustained the objection and denied judgment, and the county collector appealed.

The property which appellee claimed to be exempt from taxation consisted of two large tracts of land, one containing forty-six and sixty-seven one-hundredth acres west of Green Bay road, in the south half of the south-west quarter of section 17, and the other contains one hundred and seven acres in the north-west quarter of section 17, lying north of Sulzer street in the town of Lakeview, Cook county.Neither of the tracts is included with the lands owned by the company and in use for burial purposes.No lots have been sold for burial purposes, nor has any portion of either tract ever been actually used for burial purposes, although it was surveyed and platted six or seven years ago.It also appears that these lands are separated from the land in actual use by the company by a public highway.The company have erected on the forty-six-acre tract several buildings occupied by men in its employment, and stables where its horses are kept; the other tract of 107 acres is fenced off by itself, and has been used by the company as a pasture for its horses; and, as occasion required, sand and mold have been taken from each tract and used on the company's land which is in actual use for burial purposes, for the purpose of improving the same.

Appellee does not contend that the lands in question are, or ever have been, in actual use for burial purposes, or that they are held “for the general use of lot holders;” but it is said the lands have been platted as cemetery grounds, and the plat recorded, and they are held “subservient to burial purposes,” and, being thus held, they are exempt from taxation under the charter.

It is true that, under the...