People ex rel. Johnson v. Peacock

Citations

• 98 Ill. 172
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 238

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxes—one per cent per month penalty is not retrospective. That part of sec. 177, of the Revenue act, which provides that “unpaid taxes shall bear interest, after the first day of May, at the rate of one per cent per month until paid,” etc. not having gone into effect until the first day of July, 1879, can not be held to apply to taxes of 1878, and prior years.</p> <p>2. Independent of the rule which forbids the giving of statutes a retrospective operation unless an intention to that effect is clearly manifest, the clause of the Revenue act giving one per cent per month on unpaid taxes after May the first, being highly penal, can not be held to apply to back taxes, which necessarily consist of accumulated interest upon interest, not distinguishable from the taxes proper.</p> <p>3. Same—the one per cent per month for delay in payment is not interest, but only a penalty. That part of sec. 177, of the Revenue law, which requires the payment of one per cent a month on unpaid taxes, after May the first, is not interest, in the legal sense of that term, but is a penalty; and hence it is not in conflict with sec. 22, art. 4, of the constitution, which forbids the passing of any local or special law regulating the rate of interest on money.</p> <p>4. Statutes—retrospective operation not favored. Statutes, except those relating to remedies exclusively, will not be given a retrospective operation, unless the intention to make them so is manifest.</p> <p>5. Same—penal one, lo be strictly construed. Penal statutes are to be strictly construed, and are never to be extended by mere implication to either persons or things not expressly brought within their terms.</p> <p>6. Same—construed so as not to be in conflict with organic law. Courts will not so construe a statute as to render it unconstitutional, if any other reasonable construction can be placed upon it which will render it effectual and legal.</p>