Assessment

damages.

be prima facie evidence as to the number of said petitioners and of their interest in the property assessed.

CONDEMNATION PROCEEDINGS.

§ 5. Whenever any order is passed by the common council, by virtue hereof, for the making of any public improvement mentioned in the first section of this chapter which shall require the appropriation or condemnation of any land or real estate, the commissioners of the board of of public works shall forthwith proceed to ascertain and assess the damages and recompense due the owners of such land respectively, and at the same time to determine what real estate will be benefited by such improvement, and assess the damages, together with the costs of the proceedings, on the real estate by them deemed benefitted, in proportion, as nearly as may be, to the benefit resulting to each separate lot or parcel. If the proceeding be one for widening the Chicago river, or either of its branches, or any part or parts of the same, the assessment may, if so ordered by the common council, be made to include the estimated expense of excavation and completing the work, in addition to the value of the land condemned; but in all other cases shall cover only the damages awarded for the real estate appropriated and the costs of the proceedings.

Oath of commissioners.

Appraisement.

6. Before proceeding to make said assessment the commissioners shall be sworn, faithfully to execute their duties, according to the best of their ability. They shall then give six days' notice by publication in the corporation newspaper, of the time and place of their meeting for the purpose of making said assessment, in which notice they shall specify what such assessment is to be for, and shall describe the land to be condemned, as near as may be done by general description. The meeting of said commissioners, when engaged in making such assessment, shall be held in a public place in said city, to be specified in said notice, and all persons interested in any such assessment, shall have the right to be present and be heard, either in person or by counsel. The commissioners shall view the premises to be condemned and receive any legal evidence that may be offered, for the purpose of proving the true value thereof, or the damages that will be sustained, or benefit conferred, by reason of the contemplated improvement; and the said commissioners, for this purpose, are hereby authorized to administer oaths to all witnesses produced before them. They shall permit the counsel to the corporation, or city attorney, to appear before them at such hearing, to represent the interests of the city, and may adjourn from time to time until said assessment is completed.

§ 7. The commissioners, in making said assessment, shall determine and appraise, to the owner or owners, the value of the real estate appropriated for the improvement,

and the injury arising to them, respectively, from the condemnation thereof, which shall be awarded to such owners respectively, as damages, after making due allowance therefrom for any benefit which such owners may respectively derive from such improvement.

8. If the damage to any person be greater than the benefit received, or if the benefit be greater than the damage, in either case the commissioners shall strike a balance, and carry the difference forward, to another column, so that the assessment may show what amount is to be received or paid by such owners, respectively, and the difference only shall, in any case, be collectable of them, or paid to them."

9. In the assessment of damages and benefits for the offsets. opening of any street or alley, it shall be lawful for the commissioners, in their discretion, in making such assessment, where part of the land to be laid out into such street or alley, has been theretofore donated by any person or persons for such street or alley, to appraise the value of the land so donated, and to apply the value thereof, as far as the amount so appraised shall go, as an offset to the benefits assessed against the person or persons making such donation, or those claiming under them; but nothing herein contained. shall authorize any person or persons by whom such donation is made to claim from the city the amount of such appraisal, except as an offset, as herein provided. And where the assessment is one for the widening of any street, which may have been theretofore, either in whole or in part, donated to the public by the proprietors of the adjoining land, it shall also be lawful for said commissioners, in their discretion, to make such allowance therefor, in their assessment of benefits, as shall to them seem equitable and just.

10. If there should be any building standing in whole Damagefor buildor in part upon the land to be taken, the commissioners ings taken. shall add to their estimate of damages for the land, the damages also for the building or part of building necessary to be taken, if it be the property of the owner of the land. When owned by any other person, the damages for the building shall be assessed separately. The value of such building to the owner to remove, or of the part thereof necessary to be taken, shall also be determined by the commissioners, and notice of such determination shall be given by them to the owner when known, if a resident of the city, or left at his usual place of business or abode. If the owner is not known, or is a non-resident, notice to all persons interested shall be given by publication for ten days in the corporation newspaper. Such owner may at any time within ten days after service, or the first publication, of such notice, notify to said commissioners in writing his election to take such building or part of building at their appraisal; and in such case the amount of such appraisal shall be deducted by the commissioners from the estimated damages

Assessment damages.

of

Filing of assess

city clerk

for the land and building, where they belong to the same owner, and from the estimated damages for the building where they belong to different owners; and the owner shall have such time for the removal of the building after the confirmation of the assessment, as the board of public works may allow. If the owner shall refuse to take the building at the appraisal, or fail to give notice of his election as aforesaid within the time prescribed, then no deduction shall be made from the estimated damages aforesaid, and the board of public works shall, after the confirmation of the assessment and after the money is collected or otherwise provided and ready in the hands of the treasurer to be paid over to the owner for his damages, proceed to sell such building or part of building at public auction, for cash, giving at least five days' public notice of the sale by publication in the corporation newspaper and cause such building to be then forthwith removed. The proceeds of such sale shall be paid into the city treasury to the credit of the special assessment fund raised for the said improvement.

§ 11. If the lands and buildings belong to different persons, or if the land be subject to lease, the injury done to such persons, respectively, may be awarded to them, by the commissioners, less the benefits resulting to them, respectively, from the improvement.

§ 12. Having ascertained the damages and expenses of such improvement, as aforesaid, the commissioners shall thereupon apportion and assess the same, together with costs of the proceedings, upon the real estate by them deemed benefited, in proportion to the benefits resulting thereto from the improvement, as nearly as may be, and shall briefly describe the real estate upon which their assessments may be made; and it shall constitute no legal objection to said assessment that the amount thereof either exceeds or falls short of the original estimate of the cost of the improvement submitted to the common council by the board of public works.

§ 13. When completed the commissioners shall sign and ment rolls with file the assessment roll in the office of the city clerk, and a duplicate thereof in the office of the board of public works. Notice shall be given by said commissioners, by six days' publication in the corporation newspaper, of the filing of such assessment roll in the clerk's office; and that at the next regular meeting of the common council to be held after the expiration of such publication, they will apply to the common council for a confirmation of said assessment. Objections to said assessment may be heard before the common council, but all parties objecting shall file their objections in writing, in the office of the city clerk, at least one day prior to such meeting of the council. Should no quorum be present at such meeting, the matter shall stand postponed to the next regular meeting of the council when there

shall be a quorum. The council shall have power to adjourn such hearing from time to time, and shall have power in their discretion, to revise and correct the assessment, and confirm or annul the same, and direct a new assessment to be made. Said assessment, when confirmed by the common⚫ council, shall be final and conclusive upon all parties interested therein, except as is hereinafter provided; and when said assessment is confirmed and no appeal is taken, as herein provided, a warrant shall issue for the collection of the same, signed by the mayor and city clerk. If said assessment shall be annulled by the common council or set aside by the court, the commissioners of the board of public works shall proceed to make a new assessment, and return the same in like manner, and give like notices as herein required in relation to the first; and all parties in interest shall have the like rights, and the common council shall perform like duties and have like powers in relation to any subsequent determination as are hereby given in relation to the first.

§ 14. Any person whose property has been appropriated Taking appeals. and who has filed objections to said assessment, as hereinbefore provided, shall have the right, at any time within ten days after the confirmation of the same by the common council, and not after that time, having first given notice of his or her intention so to do to the counsel to the corporation or city attorney, specifying in such notice the court to which the appeal is to be taken, to pray an appeal to any court of general jurisdiction in Cook county from the order of the common council confirming such assessment, upon filing a bond to said city, approved by the judge or judges of the court to which the appeal is taken, conditioned to save the city harmless from all damages caused by the taking of such appeal. In case of appeal a copy of the assessment roll, as confirmed by the common council, and of the objections to the final order confirming the same, shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the court to which such appeal shall be taken, and the cause shall be docketed by such clerk in the name of the person taking such appeal against the city of Chicago, as an "appeal from assessment." said cause shall be then at issue, and shall have the preference in order of trial over all civil causes pending in said court. Such appeal shall be tried by the court, and on such trial the only questions to be passed upon shall be whether the common council had jurisdiction in the case, and whether the valuation of the property specified in the objections is a fair valuation, and the assessment so far as it affects said property, is a fair and impartial assessment. The judgment of the court shall be either to confirm or annul the assessment, from which judgment no appeal or writ of error shall lie.

The

Judgment to con

15. When any such assessment shall have been confirm assessment. firmed by the common council, and no appeal have been taken therefrom, or, if an appeal shall have been taken, when judgment to confirm the assessment shall have been rendered thereon, the same shall be a lawful and sufficient condemnation of the land or property ordered to be appropriated. The board of public works shall thereupon cause to be paid to the owner of such property, or to his agent, the amount of damages, over and above all benefits which may have been awarded therefor, as soon as a sufficient amount of the assessment shall have been collected for that purpose; but the claimant shall in all cases furnish an abstract of title showing himself entitled to such damages before the same shall be paid. If in any case there shall be any doubt as to who is entitled to the damages for land taken, the city may require of the claimant a bond with good and sufficient sureties to hold said city harmless from all loss, costs and expenses, in case any other person should claim said damages. In all cases the title to land taken and condemned in manner aforesaid shall be vested absolutely in the city, in fee simple.

Notice to be given

is taken.

§ 16. As soon as the money is collected, and ready, in before property the hands of the treasurer, to be paid over to parties entitled to damages for property condemned, ten day's notice thereof shall be given by the board of public works in the corporation newspaper; and the city may then, and not before, enter upon, take possession of and appropriate the property condemned.

Prior

contracts

817. Where the whole of any lot or parcel of land or other premises under lease or other contract, shall be taken for any of the purposes aforesaid, by virtue of this act, all the covenants, contracts and engagements between landlords and tenants, or any other contracting parties, touching the same or any part thereof, shall, upon publication of the notice required in the preceding section, respectively cease and be absolutely discharged.

818. Where part only of any lot or parcel of land or and agreements. other premises so under lease or other contract, shall be taken for any of the purposes aforesaid, by virtue of this act, all the covenants, contracts, and agreements and engagements respecting the same, upon publication of the aforesaid notice, shall be absolutely discharged as to the part thereof so taken, but shall remain valid as to the residue thereof, and the rents, considerations and payments reserved, payable and to be paid for or in respect to the same, shall be so proportioned as that the part thereof, justly and equitably payable for such residue thereof, and no more, shall be paid or recoverable for the same.

§ 19. All proceedings taken by said board of public works, in relation to the laying out of any street, alley, lane or highway, wharf, slip, public square or ground, or the