Craw v. Village of Tolono

Citations

• 96 Ill. 255
• 1880 Ill. LEXIS 27

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxation—of special taxation of contiguous property for sidewalls. Under our constitution it is competent for the legislature to confer upon the corporate authorities of cities, towns and villages, power to impose upon contiguous property, in the form of a special tax, the burden of the expense of the construction of a sidewalk along the line of such property, and such tax may be lawfully assessed upon the respective parts thereof in proportion to the frontage of each part upon such improvement, and the payment of such tax may be enforced against the property so taxed.</p> <p>2. Same—can not be made personal. So much of sec. 3 of the act of 1875, entitled “An act to provide additional means for the construction of sidewalks in cities, towns and villages,” as authorizes the cost of such sidewalk, or any part thereof, to be recovered of the owners of lots, etc., by action at law, is unconstitutional and inoperative, and so much of the same section as seems to authorize the seizure, by warrant issued by the clerk, of the personal property of the owner, in satisfaction of such special tax, is without consti- • tutional authority, and void.</p> <p>3. Same—when a tax is personal. A tax on persons may be imposed merely as such, as, in case of a poll tax, or upon persons as the owners of property, or as the possessors of property, or as the managers or proprietors of a business carried on, in all which cases the tax is a personal tax, the payment of which is a personal duty, and the property or business entering into the transaction is adopted merely as the basis for the measure of the amount of the tax.</p> <p>4. A mere taxation of property imposes no personal liability upon the owner. It is an imposition of a charge merely upon the thing itself, and not upon the owner or possessor of the thing, and if the charge is not paid by some one interested in the thing taxed, resort can be had for the collection of such a tax only to the thing taxed.</p> <p>5. Same—distinctio