68 Mo. App. 63 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1896
This is a suit to enforce certain special tax bills issued for the grading and macadamizing of Eosedale avenue in the city of Westport. At the trial in the circuit court there was a judgment in - plaintiff’s favor and defendant appealed.
Of the several objections urged to defeat the action, we find it necessary to consider and pass on one only, as that is sufficient to invalidate the tax bills. This work was done, and these bills were issued, in pursuance of ordinances passed in August, 1889. The point is, were these ordinances valid. It is objected on the part of defendant that they were not authorized by the law then in force for the government of cities of the fourth class (to which Westport belongs). If this is so, then the tax bills must fail, for a valid ordinance is the very foundation upon which such charges must rest.
It of course is well understood, and has been repeatedly so declared, that in fastening these charges on the property owner the law must be followed in every substantial particular. Here the statute in force at the date of the ordinances providing for this work was not followed; the law as it then existed did not warrant such ordinances. They were, therefore, illegal, and the tax bills based thereon are void.
Judgment reversed.