City of Champaign v. Harmon

Citations

• 98 Ill. 491
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 281

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal corporation—no power to purchase al tax sale. A municipal corporation, in the absence of any enabling statute, has no authority of law to become the purchaser of lands or lots at a tax sale, and acquire a title by complying with the statute in respect to such sales. The general power to buy and hold real estate does not authorize such a purchase.</p> <p>2. Same—general incorporation act does not apply to cities under special charters. Sec. 159 of the act to provide for the incorporation of cities and villages, confers no power on cities and villages, organized under special charters, to become purchasers at tax sales.</p> <p>3. Same—powers are limited. Municipal corporations are creatures of the statute, and can only exercise such powers as are expressly conferred, or such as arise by implication from powers expressly granted.</p> <p>4. Same—power to acquire and hold real estate. A power in a charter of a city to acquire and hold real estate must be understood as authorizing purchases made in the ordinary way, and only for corporate purposes, and a grant of power to purchase real property for particular purposes, it seems, is a limitation on the powers of such corporations, and will exclude, by necessary implication, all purchases for mere speculation or profit.</p> <p>5. Under a general grant of power to buy and hold real property, a municipal corporation may buy and hold such property, within the corporate limits, as may be necessary for corporate purposes, and it may even buy and hold real estate beyond the corporate limits, for the location of cemeteries, pest houses, and other purposes connected with the sanitary condition of the municipality.</p> <p>6. Same—who may avoid act in excess of power. Where a general authority exists in a municipal corporation to buy real estate for any purpose, the vendor in such case may not afterwards avoid his contract by insisting his deed is void because the corporation may have exceeded its powers in making suc