People Ex Rel. Weber v. Chicago
| Decision Date | 02 October 1880 |
| Citation | 96 Ill. 369,1880 WL 10114 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE ex rel. Weberv.CHICAGO AND ALTON RAILROAD CO. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
APPEAL from the County Court of St. Clair county; the Hon. FREDERICK H. PEIFER, Judge, presiding.
Mr. GEORGE W. BROCKHAUS, State's attorney, for the People.
Messrs. G. & G. A. KOERNER, for the appellee.
This was an application by the collector of St. Clair county to the county court for judgment against the following described land for taxes: Lot 15, survey 786, claim 2667, (called Condarse tract and additions thereto,) except right of way, containing 10 37-100 acres, as recorded in plat book E, page 10, of the recorder's office at Belleville.
The land was assessed as the property of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, and it appeared and filed certain objections, which were considered by the court, and judgment for taxes denied.
It appeared on the hearing that no plat had ever been recorded dividing government survey 786 into subdivisions or lots, and the county court refused to render judgment for taxes, on the ground that there was no record of lot 15 appearing in the recorder's office of the county in plat book E, or in any other book or record contained in the office.
If there was no such property as lot 15 mentioned in the application, in existence, then it is clear the court did right in refusing judgment, because a judgment for taxes can not be rendered against property which has no existence. Property must be described by reference to government surveys, or by metes and bounds, or, if it is divided into lots, then by reference to authenticated plats. If described by some one of these modes, then it can be ascertained and its locality easily determined. But, if a certain piece of property is designated as a lot, when there is no plat to which reference can be had to determine from what tract of land the lot has been formed, it would be impossible to locate the lot.
While the government survey 786 is a description of a tract of land well recognized, and one from which the land can easily be located, yet lot 15 does not represent any ascertainable part of the survey, unless a plat had been made and recorded by competent authority, which divided the survey into lots.
Section 62 of the Revenue law (Rev. Stat. 1874, 868) provides: ...
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