McVeagh v. City of Chicago

Citations

• 49 Ill. 318

Syllabus

<p>1. Constitutional law—general ride of construction. The presumption is, that every law passed by the legislature is in conformity with the constitution, unless the contrary be shown, and it must be a clear and palpable case, before the court will undertake to decide an act of a co-ordinate department of the government was beyond their constitutional competency to enact.</p> <p>2. Taxation or national bank shares—under the act of 1867. The provision of the act of June 13,1867, requiring the assessment of shares in banks to be made for the year 1867, with regard to the ownership and value of such shares on the first day of July, 1867, instead of the first day of the preceding April, does not violate the principle of equality and uniformity established by the constitution.</p> <p>3. But if in making an assessment under that act, the valuation of the shares was determined on the first day of July, and the law required it should be determined as of the first day of April, it would be necessary for the owner of the shares, calling upon a court of equity for relief, to show that he has been injured thereby—that by reason thereof, the valuation put upon them on the first day of July, was greater than they justly bore on the first day of April preceding, or that he was compelled to pay a double tax, first on the money listed for taxation on the first day of April, and again on the bank shares he purchased with this same money between that day and the first day of July.</p> <p>4. Where a particular species of property has been omitted from taxation for a given year, the legislature have the power to pass a special law to cure the omission.</p> <p>5. So the tax on national bank shares not having been legally assessed for the year 1867, by reason of the defective law under which it was attempted, the act of June of that year, was designed to supply the omission, and there was no want of constitutional power to enact it.</p> <p>6. In assessing the shares in national banks und