Walker v. City of Aurora

Citations

• 140 Ill. 402
• 29 N.E. 741

Syllabus

<p>1. Special assessment — how made — certificate of commissioners. Under an ordinance for a system of sewerage, to be paid for by special assessments upon the property benefited and by general taxation, the commissioners certified that they estimated what proportion of the total cost would be of benefit to the public and what proportion would be of benefit to contiguous property, and apportioned the same between the city and such property, so that each should bear its equitable proportion ; that the amounts assessed by them as special benefits to each lot, etc., were shown upon the assessment roll; that they apportioned and assessed the amount found to be of benefit, upon the several lots, etc., in the proportion in which they will severally be benefited by the improvement, and that no lot, etc., was assessed a greater amount than it would be actually benefited: Held, that such an assessment was in conformity with the statute.</p> <p>2. Same—according to frontage. While a special assessment made on the basis of frontage, merely, and without regard to special benefits, .would be invalid, there is no rule of law precluding the commissioners (from taking into consideration the number of feet frontage of the several lots upon the street or improvement as an element in their ascertainment of benefits. •</p> <p>3. Same—must correspond to benefits. The fact that the commissioners assess against each lot the exact cost of the improvement in front of the same, or the fact that the several amounts assessed against the several lots are in exact proportion to the frontage of said several lots, will not, of itself, vitiate the assessment, provided it appears that the special benefits are equal to such cost and in proportion to such frontage.</p> <p>4. Same-—;for sewerage system—before water mains are laid. A special assessment of benefits on lots to pay for the construction of a system of sewerage is not invalid merely because the water mains of the city .water-works have not b