Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway Co. v. City of Chicago

Citations

• 53 Ill. 80

Syllabus

<p>1. Judgments—their requisites. All judgments for money must be certain, and find the sum for which they 8re rendered, and failing so to do, they are fatally defective..</p> <p>2. Same—judgments for taxes and upon special assessments. It has been held, that a judgment against lands for non-payment of taxes is fatally defective, unless there is some character or word which indicates the amount or sum for which numerals are employed in the collector’s report, upon which the judgment is rendered. The same rule governs in case of a judgment for a special assessment.</p> <p>3. In this case, which was an application for judgment against city lots for non-payment of a special assessment, in the collector’s report there were various numerals in columns, opposite the several lots, and the columns were headed thus: the first, “ Amount duethe second, “ Costs, cents,” and the third, “ Amount due.” There was neither at the head of the columns, nor opposite the figures in the columns, any word, mark or character to indicate for what the figures were designed. The judgment itself contained nothing to indicate the amount, except by reference to the report: Held, the judgment was fatally defective, in failing to find the sum of money due.</p>