Redman v. Kyle

Citations

• 76 Fla. 79
• 80 So. 300

Syllabus

<p>1. In the absence of a provision for the enforcement of an assessment in the nature of a judicial proceeding, in which notice is given to owner of property affected and a fair and full opportunity afforded him to he heard therein on the merits of the assessment, it is necessary, before a tax is levied and becomes a lien upon land, as the result of the • determination of somebody or instrumentality acting under delegated powers, that those who are to pay the tax or the owner of the land- against which the assessment is to he enforced, should have notice of the tax to he imposed and an opportunity given him to contest the merits of the assessment.</p> <p>2. Section 7, Chap. 7430, of the Acts of 1917, which authorizes the Board of Supervisors of a Drainage District, to impose a tax, not to exceed a stated maximum amount, for the purpose of paying expenses of making surveys of the district, assessing benefits and damages resulting from the proposed drainage and reclamation work and to .pay other-expenses necessarily incurred, to he estimated by such-Board, acting under delegated powers, violates the constitutional provision that no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law, when such tax is assessed and levied without notice to the owner of the property on which such tax is imposed, or affording him an opportunity to contest the merits of the assessment.</p> <p>3. In a Statute creating a lien on land within a local drainage district for taxes imposed to pay the preliminary expenses incurred prior to the actual drainage and reclamation work, the amount of which taxes is determined by a Board acting under delegated powers, a provision for the enforcement of such lien by a suit in equity, but providing that “no informality or irregularity in holding any of the meetings provided herein, or valuation, or assessment of the lands, or in the name of the owners of the lands, or in the number of acres therein shall be a valid defence” does not accord to o