Scully v. People of State

• Citation: 104 Ill. 349,1882 WL 10419
• Parties: WILLIAM SCULLYv.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.
• Decision Date: 28 September 1882
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

104 Ill. 349

1882 WL 10419 (Ill.)

WILLIAM SCULLY

v.THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed at Springfield Sept. 28, 1882.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Logan county; the Hon. CYRUS EPLER, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. BLINN & HOBLITT, for the appellant:

The leases executed by William Scully to tenants, before time of payment of rent, are not the subject of taxation under the revenue laws of this State, because the real estate having been taxed, the income from the real estate, before it is earned or collected, can not be assessed for taxation, and because neither the residence of the owner of the leases nor the situs of the personal property was in this State. Sangamon and Morgan R. R. Co. v. County of Morgan, 14 Ill. 165; Mills v. Thornton, 26 Id. 301; Irwin v. New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago R. R. Co. 94 Id. 108; St. Louis v. Ferry Co. 11 Wall. 428; Hoyt v. Commissioners, 23 N. Y. 228; People v. Hibernia Bank, 51 Cal. 243.

Mr. R. B. FORREST, State's Attorney, for the People:

Rents to become due, payable in cash at a fixed period, are credits, and as such are assessable property.

Agents located in this State, conducting and carrying on a permanent business, are required to list to the assessor all credits belonging to their principals. Div. 2 of sec. 6, and secs. 9, 19, Revenue Laws of 1872; Board, etc. v. Davenport, 40 Ill. 197.

Mr. JUSTICE SHELDON delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was a suit instituted by attachment, against William Scully, for the recovery of $1427, as personal property taxes for the years 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879 and 1880, appearing upon the collector's book of East Lincoln township, in Logan county, to be due and unpaid. There was a recovery by the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed.

The facts of the case are these: William Scully was a resident of England, and owned a number of farms in Logan county, in this State, which he leased through agents residing in Logan county. The rent under these leases was payable in cash, on the first day of January in each year. The assessor, in making his assessments for the years in question, assumed that on the first day of March, in each year, the leases were made, running for one or more years, and estimated that from March 1 to May 1 two months' rent had accrued upon the lands, and, upon that basis, that on the first day of May there was two months' rent accrued but not due, the assessor assessed, during the several years in question, this two months' rent, from March 1 to May 1, in each year, as a credit. It is the taxes levied upon these assessments which are the subject of this suit. It is the provision of our statute, that personal property shall be listed by the assessor with...