People ex rel. Sullivan v. Florville

• Decision Date: 16 December 1903
• Citation: 69 N.E. 623,207 Ill. 79
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. SULLIVAN, County Collector, v. FLORVILLE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

207 Ill. 79

69 N.E. 623

PEOPLE ex rel. SULLIVAN, County Collector,

v.FLORVILLE. ^*

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 16, 1903.

Appeal from Sangamon County Court; Geo. W. Murray, Judge.

Application by the people, on relation of the county collector of Sangamon county, against William L. Florville, for judgment against defendant's property for taxes. From a judgment sustaining defendant's objections to the judgment applied for, relator appeals. Affirmed.

Albert Salzenstein and Arthur Fitzgerald, for appellant.

Charles P. Kane, Philip Barton Warren, Henry L. Child, and Shutt & Graham (Scholes & Barber and Bluford Wilson, of counsel), for appellee.

WILKIN, J.

This was an application made at the June term, 1903, of the county court of Sangamon county, by the county collector of that county, for judgment against delinquent lands and lots in said county for the year 1902. Appellee filed objections to the rendition of judgment against his property for the corporation taxes of the city of Springfield. The county court sustained the objections, and refused judgment against his property as to the taxes objected to, and thereupon this appeal was taken by the people.

The city of Springfield is organized under the general law, and its fiscal year begins March 1st. On March 3, 1902, its city council passed an annual appropriation bill or ordinance, appropriating for the various items of city government and expenses the sum of $271,914, and also $8,000 for library expenses, and $6,000 in payment of the first installment on library site. After this ordinance was passed, it was signed by the mayor; and immediately after its passage, on the same night, the city council passed a tax levy ordinance, levying for city government and expenses the sum of $133,511, together with the $8,000 for library expenses and $6,000 for library site. The appropriation ordinance, as passed, was published for the first time on March 5, 1902, and thus became in full force and effect on March 15, 1902. On March 17, 1902, the city clerk of the city of Springfield filed with the county clerk of Sangamon county a certified copy of said tax levy ordinance, as provided by statute. On August 11, 1902, the city council passed an amendment to the appropriation ordinance of March, appropriating the sum of $7,000 for the purpose of rebuilding the town branch sewer, and on September 8, 1902, an amendment to the tax levy ordinance, levying the sum of $7,000 as a special sewer fund for the purpose of rebuilding the town branch sewer. This amendment to the tax levy ordinance was also duly certified by the city clerk to the county clerk. The county clerk duly extended all of the taxes, as above levied, against the property of appellee; but when they became due and payable he refused to pay the same, and, upon this application of the county collector for judgment, filed his objections to said taxes, which, as stated above, were sustained by the court, and this appeal was prayed.

The first objection made by appellee is to the appropriation ordinance and tax levy passed on March 3, 1902. His objection is that at the time of the passage of said tax levy ordinance there was no appropriation ordinance in full force and effect, as the one passed March 3d had not been published at that time as required by statute, and that this was a condition precedent, and therefore the tax levy ordinance was void. The validity of this objection must depend upon the construction of paragraphs 64, 89, and 111 of chapter 24 of our statutes (Hurd's Rev. St. 1899, pp. 279, 282, 286). Paragraph 89 provides that the city council ‘shall, within the first quarter of each fiscal year, pass an ordinance, to be termed the ‘Annual Appropriation Bill,’ in which such corporate authorities may appropriate such sum or sums of money as may be deemed necessary to defray all necessary expenses and liabilities of such corporation.' Paragraph 111 provides that the city council ‘shall, annually, on or before the third Tuesday in September in each year, ascertain the total amount of appropriations for all corporate purposes legally made and to be collected from the tax levy of that fiscal year; and, by an ordinance specifying in detail the purposes for which such appropriations are made and the sum or amount appropriated for each purpose, respectively, levy the amount so ascertained upon all the property subject to taxation within’ said city. Paragraph 64 provides that ‘all ordinances of cities * * * making any appropriation, shall, within one month after they are passed, be published at least once in a newspaper published in the city or village, or, if no such newspaper is published therein, by posting copies of the same in three public places in the city or village; and no such ordinance shall take effect until ten days after it is so published.’

The construction of these three paragraphs has been before this court in other cases, and, while the facts were not exactly similar in those cases to the one at bar, yet the decisions therein, we think, give the proper interpretation or construction of said three paragraphs. In the case of Riverside Co. v. Howell, 113 Ill. 256, it was said (page 261), speaking of paragraphs 89 and 111: ‘It will thus be seen that there is here, in the interest of the taxpayer, most careful provision made against extravagance of expenditure and abuse of the power of taxation. There is to be passed within the first quarter of each fiscal year the annual appropriation bill, wherein is to be appropriated such money as may be deemed necessary for all expenses and liabilities of the corporation, specifying the objects and purposes of the appropriations, and the amount for each object and purpose, which is to be published. * * * The power given to the city council to levy taxes is with a restriction as to the manner in which the power is to be exercised-that the city council shall ascertain the total amount of appropriations legally made, and, by ordinance, levy and assess...