Wilcox v. Village of Edgerton
Wilcox v. Village of Edgerton
Opinion of the Court
The sole, single question here is whether or not, when the plaintiff Wilcox elected to pay, not in cash, but in ten annual installments, in the total-amount of $1,300, as finally determined by the court of appeals, he was chargeable with interest in accordance with the original ordinance, and also the judgment and finding of the court of appeals.
“Such resolution shall determine the general nature of the improvement. * * * In such resolution council shall also determine the method of the assessment, the mode of payment, and whether or not bonds shall be issued in anticipation of the collection thereof. Assessments for any improvement may be payable in one to twenty installments, at such time as council prescribes.”
It would seem quite clear from the foregoing language of Section 3815 that when council is given power to “determine the method of the assessment and the mode of payment,” it has fully complied therewith when it provides by ordinance, as appears from the record, to give the parties assessed the right to pay in cash within twenty days, without interest, or to pay in ten annual installments, with interest upon the deferred payments at the same rate as the amount paid on the bonds.
No question about the right of council to make the assessments due and payable in one payment can be raised. The statute authorizes the council so to do. If that be within its power, it is difficult to understand why the giving of an option to the owner of the property in question to pay the assessment in ten annual installments, at. the same rate of interest as is payable on the bonds, purely as a favor to him, should invalidate such assessment to the extent of the interest charge. If the lot owner has not the money to pay in cash within the twenty
It is all left to the owner’s option, whether he prefers time with interest or cash without interest. The assessment of cash without interest is made by the village. The ten-installment assessment with interest is made by the owner; that is, he elects so to pay. For the favor of the time he assumes the burden of interest as fixed in the ordinance. He cannot complain at his own election, since, had he so desired, he might have paid the whole assessment in a lump sum within the statutory limitation of' 33 1-3 per cent.
The judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Municipal corporations — Assessments — Limitation of one-third of property value — Section 3819, General Code — Interest on deferred installments — Not part of improvement cost, when. Where a statute limits the assessment for local improvements to thirty-three and one-third per cent, of the actual value of the property so assessed after the completion of such improvement, and the village council pursuant thereto, by ordinance, fixes the mode of payment either in cash within -twenty days, or in ten annual installments, at the option of the property .owner, such installments to bear the same rate of interest as the bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of the assessments: Held, Upon the owner’s own election to pay in ten annual installments, , the interest charges ■ upon such installments are not in violation of Section 3819, General Code, so long as he was given the option of paying it all in one payment, within the thirty-three and one-third per cent.