178 Iowa 1365 | Iowa | 1917
“Payable only out of a fund to be raised from a tax to be assessed and levied by the city council of the city of Clinton upon the real estate abutting upon Sixth Street in the former city of'Lyons, now annexed and incorporated in the city of Clinton, extending from the intersection of Main Street in said former city of Lyons south to the south line of the incorporated limits of the former city-of Lyons (now Clinton), being the property abutting upon and benefited by the street improvement in Paving District No. 3, in said former city of Lyons, such assessment to' be so levied, within ninety days from the date hereof, and made in proportion to the feet frontage on such street, provided, however, the whole or any part of said assessment may be paid without interest by said abutting property holders within sixty days from the
Thereafter, in October, 1902, after notice to the property owners, but not within the period of 90 days, the city council did proceed to levy a special assessment on the property in District No. 3, as directed in the decree of the Federal court. The assessment was made payable in five- installments, the last falling due in the year 1906. A considerable proportion of the property owners have never paid these assessments. In October, 1908, the city treasurer, at the direction of the city council, certified the unpaid assessments to the county treasurer, to have collection thereof made or- enforced. The county treasurer entered the same on the tax list for 1908 and, at the tax sale following, offered the property for sale without securing bids therefor. In making up the tax books for the following year, 1909, the delinquent assessments, including those here in controversy, were not carried forward into such books, as required by the statute, Code Section 1389, nor were they advertised or offered for sale that year. In the year 1910, and again in 1911, said assessments were brought forward upon the tax books, but the property was not sold, for want of bidders. In 1912, the property was again offered for sale, and struck off to L. F. Sutton, or to him as agent for A. A. Woolfsperger. This action was thereupon begun in equity to restrain the issuance of certificates of such tax sale to the purchaser or purchasers, and to quiet the title of the property owners against further claim of right or lien under or by virtue of such alleged assessment or tax. This petition is based upon several grounds, among -which are: (1) That the'Federal court was without jurisdiction to enter the decree requiring such special assessments to be made; (2) that the assessments were never certified to the county auditor by the city clerk, as provided by law (Code Section 902), but by the city treasurer, whose