118 Iowa 88 | Iowa | 1902
Neither of these views can be sustained. Section 1 of said chapter provides that “whenever, by reason of an alleged nonconformity to any law or ordinance or by reason of any omission or irregularity, any special tax or assessment is either invalid or its validity is questioned, the city council may make all necessary orders and ordinances and may take all necessary steps to correct the same and to reassess and to relevy the same, including the ordering of work, with the same force and effect as if made at the time provided by law or ordinance relating thereto, and may reassess and relevy the same with the same force and effect as an original levy.” The purpose of this act was to give cities the power to correct alleged irregularities or omissions, so that no property which was properly subject to a special tax should be permitted to escape its just proportion of the public burdens. Its language in no sense limits its operation to prior assessments. On the contrary, it expressly says that ‘‘whenever” such assessments are questioned the city council has power to act under its provisions. It was clearly intended to avoid the necessity of repeated acts curing illegal or defective special assessments. As said in Tuttle v. Polks, 84 Iowa, 12, it applies to acts previously done, as well as proceedings in the future. By its very terms it applies to any tax which is either “invalid or its validity is questioned.” The fact that the original assessment was declared void by the district court did not estop the council from ordering a reas
The question as to the remedy which should be sought in this case, raised for the first time in argument to us, need not be given farther notice.
The plaintiff is entitled to redeem from the tax sale upon payment of the amount of all taxes, except those assessed against the lots we have named, and as to those lots the reassessment is held void. — Reversed.