19 Fla. 140 | Fla. | 1882
delivered the opinion of the court.
The proceeding in this case in the Circuit Court was upon a certiorari issuing from that court upon the petition of the plaintiff in error, Edgerton, directed to the defendants in error, the Mayor and Aldermen of Green Cove Springs, commanding a return to the Circuit Court of the records and proceedings of the Mayor and Aldermen of Green Cove Springs in the matter of the extension of Eront street in said town over the grounds of the plaintiff in error, Edgerton.
The grounds of irregularity set forth in the petition before the Circuit Court upon which the certiorari was issued w’ere:
First. That the amount of damages assessed had never been tendered, or provision made for their payment. Second. That the proceedings are irregular and do not authorize the extension of said Front street over and upon the grounds and enclosure of the petitioner.
The grounds upon which the judgment of the Circuit Court is sought to be reversed here now do not correspond in all respects with those upon which the Circuit Court was desired to base its judgment. "We do not understand that it is now denied that the amount of damages had been tendered. The Plaintiff in Error here denies the power of the Legislative Department of the government to enact the statute under which the extension of the street has been ordered by the municipal corporation, questions the regularity of the proceedings as shown by the record, and affirms that the Mayor and Aldermen were not justified by the proceedings in directing the extension desired.
The municipal corporation claims to exercise this power under Section 12, Chapter 1868, of the Laws of Florida, as amended by Section 2, Chapter 3024, Laws, approved March 8,1877.
This section, as amended, read: “ The City or Town
It is insisted that this section conflicts with Sections 1 and 6, of Article XII., of the Constitution, and that the provisions of the section in the matter of extending and opening this street are void.
These sections of the Constitution are as follows:
Section 1. “ The Legislature shall provide for a uniform and equal rate of taxation, and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation of all property, both reál and personal, excepting such property as may be exempted by law for municipal, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes.”
Section 6. “ The Legislature shall authorize the several counties and incorporated towns in the State to impose taxes for county and corporation purposes, and for no other purpose ; and all property shall be taxed upon the principle established for State Taxation. The Legislature may also
The first question to which we address ourselves is whether this act of the Legislature is constitutional ? In the discussion of this question the counsel of the Plaintiff in Error has, to a considerable extent, viewed it in connection with the particular proceedings, the legality of which is here questioned. This tends to confusion. The constitutionality of this legislation in no manner depends upon the acts performed by this municipal corporation in the proposed extension of the street. The act grants the power to extend the street, the parties injured thereby to be reasonably compensated for any injury they may sustain, the parties benefited to be charged with such reasonable assessment as may be agreed upon; and in case no agreement is made a method is provided by which the extent of the benefit, as well as the degree of injury, is to be ascertained. The abutting owner is not charged with the cost of the improvement made, and the charge for the benefit conferred is not by the act or any manner restricted to the owners of property bordering on the street or elsewhere. All persons benefited, whether they live in one district or another, and whether they own land bounded by the street proposed to be extended or not, are to be charged to the extent that they are benefited. A more just or fairer rule in the matter of extension of a street, we think, could not have been adopted, and it would be strange indeed if the power was not in the Legislature to prescribe it. Analyzing this statute it may be divided into three parts, when viewed in reference to the extension of a street:
First. The power to extend the street. We do not understand it to be denied that such a power, when the Legis
Second. Eor the injury sustained by the extension of the street over the land of the party he is to be compensated. This clearly is the exercise of the power of eminent domain. It is the taking of private property for public use, making-compensation therefor, and there is no doubt that the Legislature may confer the power here granted in this respect to this municipal corporation.
Third. To the extent that the property of any party is benefited, the statute authorizes a charge against such party.
As remarked by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in the case of Wright vs. City of Boston, 63 Mass., 240, when speaking of the case of a drain, “ the assessment is laid upon the lands specially and exclusively benefited * * * upon the simple principle of equalizing the expense upon those who enjoy its advantages, and in this way all are taxed upon the same just and equal principle with reference to the benefit conferred.”
So far as this statute requires payment for benefits it, according to the authorities, imposes a tax. I confess that I cannot see how a charge made by a municipal corporation for a' benefit conferred upon the property of an individual can be called strictly a tax. I take a tax to be a burden imposed and not payment for a benefit conferred by increased value given to a particular piece of property, but whatever may be our own views the authorities give it this legal status, and in addition thereto such tax is sustained as equal and uniform in its character, the rule of apportionment being the benefit conferred by the construction of the proposed public improvement, and this is true whether that rule is extended in its operation to the whole of a municipal corporation, or is restricted to a ward or district in
The clauses in our Constitution in reference to this subject are not grants of power but are limitations upon the power of taxation which exists in the legislative department of the government. To prove that an assessment for benefits of the character here complained of is taxation is to establish that the exercise of such power is a legislative function, and to find its limitation we must look to the Constitution. While our Constitution is very strict in its limitations as to the matter of exemptions from taxation, so far as the mode is concerned, it simply provides for a uniform and equal rate of taxation. In this statute the rule of apportionment is according to the benefit conferred, and the rate is uniform and equal when measured and determined by this of all others the most just rule. It is not essential that all of the property in a city or town should be taxed for the extension of a street or the sinking of a sewer in one portion of it. Say the Court of Appeals of New York in The People vs. Mayor of Brooklyn, 4 Com., 430: “ There never was any just foundation for saying that local taxation must necessarily be limited by or co-extensive with any previously established district. It is wrong that
"We think an examination of the cases cited in 2 Dill. Mun. Corp., Third Edition, Secs. 616, 752 and 761, will show that the conclusions we reach are abundantly sustained.
The only remaining question is whether the proceedings of the municipal corporation in this case were of a character which, under the statute, should have been set aside by the Circuit Court upon certiorari.
The record discloses that the corporation find that it is for the benefit of the citizens of the town that Front street should be opened its entire length. After failure to agree upon what compensation should be made to Mr. Edgerton, the council, in compliance with the statute, appointed five discreet persons, holders of real estate in the town, to ascertain and fix on the one hand a fair and equitable assessment,