McChesney v. People ex rel. Kern

Citations

• 148 Ill. 221
• 35 N.E. 739

Syllabus

<p>1. Special assessments—joint action of the commissioners—giving notice, etc. The statute requires that the commissioners appointed t( make a special assessment shall act jointly in giving notice of application for a confirmation of their assessment, and a notice signed b; only two of the commissioners appointed, and a third person, of the application for confirmation, will fail to give jurisdiction to the court for that purpose, and the property holder may set up such want of jurisdiction in defense to the application for judgment. T</p> <p>2. The statute providing for special assessments by cities and villages authorizes one or more of the commissioners to make affidavit of mailing notices to the owners of property assessed, and authorizes the affidavit of the person who posted notices, to he filed, to prove the fact of posting, as required by the statute; but as to the oath to be taken, examination of the locality, assessing benefits, certifying the assessment roll and signing the notices, the statute contemplates the joint action of the three commissioners. A majority can not act as to these matters.</p> <p>3. Section 1, chapter 131, which provides that in the construction of statutes, words purporting to give a joint authority to three or more public officers, or other persons, shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such officers or persons, unless such construction will be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the legislature, or repugnant to the context of the same statute, will not make the signatures of two of the commissioners to notices valid, as that would be repugnant to the act relating to special assessments.</p> <p>4. Where two of three commissioners appointed to make special assessments of benefits, instead of signing notices as a majority of the appointees, call in a stranger to the proceeding, who acts with the two in giving the notices, their act can not be sustained, and such notices, so signed, will fail to confer jur