Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad v. City of Chicago

82 N.E. 399, 230 Ill. 9, 1907 Ill. LEXIS 3260
Illinois Supreme Court·Decided October 23, 1907·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

Application was made to the county court of Cook county for the confirmation of a special assessment against appellant’s property for the paving of Lowe avenue. To'the assessment roll originally filed, in which the amount of the assessment against appellant’s property was $7371.40, appellant filed no objection. It was defaulted and judgment entered against it for the amount assessed. Afterward the court entered an order referring the roll back to the commissioner, with directions to re-cast it on the face thereof in red ink, but giving no directions as to the manner in which it should be done. Some weeks later a new roll was filed assessing appellant’s property $10,456, to which the defendant filed objections. It also made a motion to strike the re-cast assessment roll from the files. This motion was overruled as well as all of appellant’s objections, and an order was made confirming the assessment against appellant’s property, from which this appeal is prosecuted.

It is contended that the estimate of the cost of the improvement is not sufficient because it does not include the grading. The estimate is as follows:

Granite concrete gutters on cinders, 100 lineal feet at 45c. $45.00
Granite concrete combined curb and gutter on cinders,
5270 lineal feet at 75c............................. 3952.50
Re-pressed vitrified paving brick on two inches of sand and six inches of Portland cement concrete, joints filled with Portland cement grout, surface dressed with
one-half inch of sand, 8240 sq. yards, at $2.75....... 22,660.00 Adjustment of sewers, catch-basins and man-holes and
constructing two new basins....................... 1342.50
Total........................................$28,000.00

Appellant proved that the grade of the surface of Lowe avenue was practically the same as that of the pavement provided for by the ordinance, and that the cost of the grading necessary to put the street in condition to receive the pavement would be $1648.

The statute requires the estimate to be itemized to the satisfaction of the board of local improvements, and this court has held that it must be itemized sufficiently to give the owners óf property a general idea of what each of the substantial component elements of the improvement is estimated to cost. (Doran v. City of Murphysboro, 225 Ill. 514; Lyman v. Town of Cicero, 222 id. 379; City of Peoria v. Ohl, 209 id. 52.) The estimate divides the improvement into four substantial component elements: the concrete gutter on cinders, the combined curb and gutter on cinders, the paving with its various parts, and the adjustment of sewers, etc. We do not think the grading constitutes a substantially different component part of the improvement, which must be separately itemized. Grading or' excavation is a part of each of the four items of the estimate. No part of the material therein specified can be applied to this improvement without the labor of putting it in place. The estimate is preceded by the statement that it includes “labor, material and all other expenses.” It must therefore have been based upon the various items of material in place in the completed work and must have included the necessary grading. The estimates in the cases of Hulbert v. City of Chicago, 213 Ill. 452, and Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. City of Chicago, 217 id. 352, were substantially the same as the estimate in this case and were held sufficient. In City of Chicago v. Singer, 202 Ill. 75, the estimate stated that it included “labor, material and all other expenses attending the same.” The item therein of curb-stones at sixty cents per lineal foot was held to include the labor, material and all other expenses attendant upon putting the stone in place and filling back of it with earth, as required by the ordinance. We regard the estimate as sufficient.

An assessment roll was made and returned to which ■ various property owners other than appellant filed objections, upon the hearing of which the roll was referred back to the commissioner with directions to re-cast the same on the face thereof in red ink, but without determining the manner in which it should be re-cast. The commissioner, instead of re-casting the roll on its face, returned an entire new roll. The court overruled appellant’s motion to strike this roll from the files and sustained appellee’s motion that the court adopt said re-cast assessment roll, and this action of the court is assigned as error.

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Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad v. City of Chicago, 82 N.E. 399, 230 Ill. 9, 1907 Ill. LEXIS 3260 (Ill. 1907).

82 N.E. 399 (Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad v. City of Chicago) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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