Thomson v. People ex rel. Foote

184 Ill. 17
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 184 Ill. 17 (Thomson v. People ex rel. Foote) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomson v. People ex rel. Foote, 184 Ill. 17 (Ill. 1900).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Craig

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the county court of Lake county, rendered against lot 1, block 23, of the original subdivision of the city of Highland Park, on the application of the county collector, for a delinquent special assessment for paving and improving St. John’s avenue from Central avenue to Laurel avenue, in the city of Highland Park. The application of the county collector for judgment for delinquent taxes and special assessments for the year 1898 showed that lot 1, block 23, was assessed in the name of A. C. Thomson, and that there was due on first and second installments of a special assessment for paving St. John’s avenue, including interest and costs, $537.78, for which the collector asked judgment. The appellant appeared and filed various objections, which were all overruled and judgment entered against the property for the amount shown to be due. To reverse the judgment appellant has appealed.

It is first claimed in the argument that the ordinance under which the improvement was made was repealed before the judgment of confirmation. The ordinance providing for the improvement, as set out in appellant’s abstract,'provides that St. John’s avenue from Central avenue to Laurel avenue be paved and improved; that said avenue shall be graded for a space of twenty feet on each side of the center line of said avenue; that a trench shall be dug on each side of the finished pavement twenty-one feet from the center line thereof; that a drain tile shall be laid in said trench; that said roadway shall be excavated and rolled and spread four inches deep with lake shore sand, and on this shall be placed a layer of limestone to the depth of four inches; on this shall be placed a layer of Joliet gravel, which shall be rolled; on this shall be placed a layer of lake shore sand; on this shall be placed a layer of brick; that catch-basins shall be constructed; that the portion of the street ordered to be paved shall be finished on each side twenty feet from the center line of St. John’s avenue with stone curbing; that that part of said avenue which lies on either side of the finished roadway, here called parkways, shall be graded to such a grade as to allow a gradual slope from the lot lines down to the top of the curb of said finished roadway.

This ordinance was passed on the 25th day of February, 1896, and in pursuance of the ordinance the assessment was made and a judgment of confirmation rendered on the 26th day of February, 1898. In the meantime, however, on the 25th day of January, 1897, the common council of the city of Highland Park granted to the Bluff City Electric Railway Company a franchise to run a street railway through the city. Section 1 of the ordinance provided: “That right and permission is given to said Bluff City Electric Street Railway Company to locate, construct and maintain a single or double track street railway, with the necessary side-tracks, etc., over the following mentioned streets.” Among other streets is mentioned the following: “On the west side of St. John’s avenue from Vine avenue to. the south side of Lincoln avenue, etc., provided that from the south line of Elm place to the south line of Highland avenue a double track shall be laid, both tracks to be so located that they shall occupy not to exceed fifteen feet in width from the outside rail of the east track to the outside rail of the west track, the outside rail of the west track to be within seven feet of the west liné of St. John’s avenue, giving said company permission to make the necessary curves and cross all bridges.”

Under this ordinance the street railway company constructed a double track on St. John’s avenue between Laurel and Central avenues, but no part of the street railway was laid upon the paved or improved part of the street. St. John’s aven-ue is eighty feet wide, so that there was ample room for the street railway to construct its double track along the west side of the street outside of the improved portion. Upon an examination of the plat of the street found in the record it will be seen that the street railway company, in constructing its track, laid its west rail three feet and seven inches from the west line of St. John’s avenue, so that the entire right of way as located by the street car company was west of the paved and improved part of the avenue. As has been seen, by the ordinance providing for the improvement twenty feet on each side of the center line of the street was ordered paved, thus making a paved roadway forty feet wide in the center of the street. The roadway thus provided for was to be curbed with a stone curb, and beyond the roadway the unpaved part of the street was to be merely graded from the line of the lots to the curb line. We do not, therefore, regard the ordinance giving the street railway company the right to occupy the street as a repeal or modification of the ordinance providing for the improvement. That part of the street occupied by the street railroad was graded as required by" the ordinance, and after being so graded the tracks were laid down. It is true, the street car company was required to pave that part of the street occupied by its tracks; but this fact had no bearing on the improvement provided by the ordinance as originally passed. If the city saw proper to require the street car company to pave fifteen feet of the street which was not required to be paved by the ordinance, .this cost appellant nothing. He was in no manner injured and has no just ground of complaint.

It is, however, said that the parkway, so called, where the street car company laid its tracks, was by the specifications required to be seeded. In the contract made by the city with the contractor the specifications did provide for seeding the street from the lot line to the curb line, but the ordinance providing for the improvement contains no provision for seeding and no seeding was done.

St. John v. City of East St. Louis, 136 Ill. 207, has been cited by appellant as an authority sustaining his position. There is no similarity between the case cited and this case. There a material part of the improvement as required by the original ordinance was abandoned, and it was properly held that a special assessment for the whole cost of the work could not be collected. But no such case has been made out here. On the contrary, the improvement was made in the manner required by the ordinance.

It appears from the record that the Chicag'o and Northwestern Railway Company owned property on the street where the improvement was made, and the property was assessed $2743.68. The railway company filed objections to the assessment, and on the 26th day of February, 1898, the following order was entered: “This day comes the city of Highland Park, by K. R.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 Ill. 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomson-v-people-ex-rel-foote-ill-1900.