City of Chicago v. Baer

Citations

• 41 Ill. 306

Syllabus

<p>1. Special assessments—street railways—benefits must be assessed upon all who are directly benefited—principle of the Lamed ease applied. The rule adopted in the case of the City of Chicago v. Loomed, 84 Ill. 267, that the constitutional provision, requiring equality of taxation, applied as well to special assessments for public improvements, as to any other form of taxation, extends to the mode of distributing the burden among those who are to he benefited; so that, when the burden is to be thus imposed, it must be imposed upon all who are directly benefited by the proposed improvement, in the ratio of benefits, since it would he a violation of the equality sought to he secured by the Constitution to exempt a portion of those benefited, and thereby increase the burden upon the remainder.</p> <p>2. Or, referring the right to make these special assessments, rather to the right of eminent domain than to the taxing power, as was done in the Loomed case, and permitting the just compensation required by the Constitution to he made in benefits, still the assessments must be made in the ratio of advantages or benefits, that is, they should be imposed equally upon all property equally benefited, or they will he unlawful.</p> <p>3. A city ordinance which seeks to exempt a portion of the property to he benefited from paying for its portion of street improvements is not only in violation of the constitutional provision securing equality of taxation, but also of that other principle of constitutional law, that the property of one person cannot he taken for the use of another, either with or without compensation.</p> <p>4. Nor can the legislature confer upon a city the power to make a valid contract with the owner of any interest in property which should contribute toward the expense of such improvements, which shall have the effect to exempt him from his portion of the burden.</p> <p>5. Same—what character of interest or estate is soügeet to such assessments— street railways