Greeley v. People

Citations

• 60 Ill. 19

Syllabus

<p>1. Special chartebs for towns — under constitution of 1848. The constitution of 1848, by authorizing the adoption of township organization, did not prohibit the general assembly from creating towns with special charters. In the absence of such a limitation, that body has power to create municipal corporations, as well in regal'd to a town six miles square, as to a village with less territory.</p> <p>3. Special assessments. Such a charter authorizing special assessments to be levied, is not unconstitutional because it does not require them to be made on the principle that the benefits must at least be equal to the assessment. But the'constitution of 1848 requires assessments tobe so made, and an assessment in excess of benefits would be void.</p> <p>3. An ordinance requiring a specified sum to be assessed on the property in the town, benefited by the improvement, without reference to whether the property is benefited to that amount, and without requiring it to be levied on the principle of equality of benefit and burthen, is void, and the levy of an assessment under it can not be enforced.</p> <p>4. Municipal CORPORATIONS — their powers. Under a charter creating a general municipal government, with all the ordinary machinery thereof, such a body has the power to erect a town hall in which to hold town meetings, elections, and for other corporate purposes, and whether such a building is necessary, is a question that must be left, in a great degree, to the people and the officers, and an application of the fund to such a purpose, in the absence of evidence, will not be held such a perversion of the fund as is not included in the provisions of the charter.</p>