City of East St. Louis v. Underwood

Citations

• 105 Ill. 308
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 89

Syllabus

<p>1. Judgment—in mandamus—whether authorized wider the prayer. Where the prayer in a petition for a mandamus is, in the alternative, that the defendant, a city, cause a levy of a tax to be made for the payment of a judgment against it, if the money on hand shall be insufficient to discharge the same, a judgment will be authorized directing payment out of a levy made after suit brought, and before the hearing, to the extent authorized by the charter, treating the due proportion of the amount levied as levied for the benefit of creditors of the city, to be so applied when the levy shall be collected.</p> <p>2. Practice—when objection should be made in the court below. An objection that a judgment awarding a peremptory writ of mandamus is variant from the prayer of the petition, should be first urged in the trial court, so that it may be obviated by amendment of the petition.</p> <p>3. Municipal indebtedness—of the levy of taxes—rights of creditors. Where a city is, by its charter, limited^o the levy of one per cent of taxes for all purposes whatever, and the charter provides that three-tenths of that per cent shall be for the payment of its bonded indebtedness, and the city does levy a one per cent tax, the court, on the application of a creditor having recovered judgment on bonds of the city, will compel the city authorities to apply three-tenths of such taxes to the payment of such judgment, if that much is necessary. In such case the creditors are entitled to have this levy annually made, so long as necessary, to discharge their debts, and the city can not lawfully devote more than seven-tenths of that levy for any fiscal year to current expenses.</p> <p>i. Merger of debt in a judgment—effect on original character of the debt. Where a city charter requires a certain per cent of taxes levied and collected to be devoted to the payment of its bonds and coupons as a class of indebtedness, the recovery of a judgment against the city on such bonds will not merge the ind