and the assessment to which it relates. If not satisfied that such assessment is erroneous, they may require the person assessed, or his agent or representative, or any other person, to appear before them and be examined concerning such complaint, and to produce any papers relating to such assessment with respect to his property or his residence for the purpose of taxation. any such person, or his agent or representative, shall willfully neglect or refuse to attend and be so examined, or to answer any material question put to him, such person shall not be entitled to any reduction of his assessments. Minutes of the examination of every person examined by the assessors upon the hearing of any such complaint shall be taken and filed in the office of the town or city clerk. The assessors shall, after said examination, fix the value of the property of the complainant and for that purpose may increase or diminish the assessment thereof. [R. S., pt. I, ch. 13, tit. II, § 20; 8th ed., 1098, L. 1857, ch. 176, §§ 6, 7; R. S., 8th ed., 1100. The provision that the complaint shall be in writing and filed with the assessors is new. L. 1857, ch. 176, § 6, requires the examination to be subscribed by witness and filed in town clerk's office, while § 36 merely requires the minutes of the testimony to be so filed. Otherwise there is no change of substance.] § 37. Correction and verification of tax-roll. When the assessors, or a majority of them, shall have completed their roll, they shall severally appear before any officer of their county, authorized by law to administer oaths, and shall severally make and subscribe before such officer an oath in the following form: "We, the undersigned, do severally depose and swear that we have set down in the foregoing assessment-roll all the real estate situated in the tax district in which we are assessors, according to our best information; and that, with the exception of those cases in which the value of the said real estate has been changed by reason of proof produced before us, we have estimated the value of the said real estate at the sums which a majority of the assessors have decided to be the full value thereof; and, also, that the said assessment-roll contains a true statement of the aggregate amount of the taxable personal estate of each and every person named in such roll over and above the amount of debts due from such persons, respectively, and excluding such stocks as are otherwise taxable, and such other property as is exempt by law from taxation, at the full value thereof, according to our best judgment and belief," which oath shall be written or printed on said roll, signed by the assessors and certified by the officer. [L. 1851, ch. 176, § 8, R. S., 8th ed., 1100, without change of substance, except that the provision of § 8, that a false oath is perjury, is omitted as being fully covered by § 96 of the penal code.] § 38. Filing of roll and notice thereof.-The assessment-roll when thus completed and verified shall be filed on or before September first, in the office of the town or city clerk, there to remain for fifteen days for public inspection. The assessors shall forthwith cause a notice to be posted conspicuously in at least three public places in the tax district and to be published in one or more newspapers, if any, published in the town or city, that such assessment-roll has been finally completed and stating that it has been so filed and will be there open to public inspection. At the expiration of such fifteen days, the town or city clerk shall deliver such roll to a supervisor of the tax district embraced therein. [R. S., pt. I, ch. 13, tit. II, § 27; 8th ed., 1099, L. 1880, ch. 269, § 9; R. S., 8th ed., 1115, § 39. Assessors to apportion valuation of railroad, telegraph, telephone, or pipe line companies between school districts. The assessors of each town in which a railroad, telegraph, telephone or pipe line company is assessed upon property lying in more that one school district therein, shall, within fifteen days after the final completion of the roll, apportion the assessed valua tion of the property of each of such corporations among such school districts. Such apportionment shall be signed by the assessors or a majority of them, and be filed with the town clerk within five days thereafter, and thereupon the valuation so fixed shall become the valuation of such property in such school district for the purpose of taxation. In case of failure of the assessors to act, the supervisor of the town shall make such apportionment on request of either the trustees of any school district or of the corporation assessed. The town clerk shall furnish the trustees a certified statement of the valuations apportioned to their respective districts. In case of any alteration in any school district affecting the valuation of such property, the officer making the same shall fix and determine the valuations in the districts affected for the current year. [L. 1867, ch. 694, §§ 1-5; R. S., 8th ed., 1326, § 40. Neglect or omission of duty by assessors.—The assessors, in the execution of their duties, shall use the forms and follow the instructions transmitted to them, from time to time, by the commissioners of taxes. If any assessor shall neglect or omit to perform any duty, the other assessors shall perform such duty and shall certify upon the assessment-roll the name of the delinquent assessor, stating therein the cause of such omission, and the assessment-roll, when otherwise made and completed in accordance with the requirements of this article, shall be deemed to be the assessment-roll of all the assessors. If the assessors shall neglect to meet for the purpose of hearing grievances, any person aggrieved by the assessment may appeal to the board of supervisors at its next meeting, which shall have the same power to review and correct such assessment as the assessors have under this article. If any assessor shall refuse or neglect to perform any duty or do any act required of him by this article, he shall forfeit to the county the sum of fifty dollars, to be recovered by the district attorney. [R. S., pt. I, ch. 13, tit. II, §§ 28-30, 8th ed., 1099, re-enacted without change of substance, except that the § 41. Abandonment of lot divisions.-Whenever more than ten years shall have elapsed after the subdivision of any tract of land into lots, plots or sites, with or without proposed streets, the owner of such tract, or of any part thereof composed of two or more contiguous lots may, by an instrument in writing, duly executed and acknowledged and describing such land, disclaim and abandon such subdivison including any streets not opened, accepted or used by the public and which are not necessary for the use of an owner or occupant of any part of said tract; and thereupon such subdivision, as to the lands described in such instrument, shall be deemed abandoned and of no effect; and thereafter the lands described therein shall, for the purpose of taxation, be regarded as a single tract. If a map of such subdivision has been filed in the office of the county clerk or register of deeds, such instrument may be recorded in said office, and a notice of such record shall thereupon be indorsed by the clerk or register upon such map. This section shall not apply to a county embracing a portion of the forest preserve. [Substitute for L. 1894, ch. 713. The legislature added the last sentence.] ARTICLE III. Equalization of Assessment and Levy of Tax. Section 50. Equalization by board of supervisors. 51. Description of real property of nonresidents. 52. Review of assessments against nonresident owners of rents reserved. Section 53. Correction of errors by board of supervisors. 54. Reassessment of property illegally assessed. 55. Levy of tax by supervisors. 56. Tax-roll and collector's warrant. 57. Statement of taxes upon certain corporations by clerk of supervisors. 58. Statement of valuation to be furnished to comp troller. 59. Abstract of warrant to be furnished county treasurer. § 50. Equalization by board of supervisors.-The board of supervisors of each county in this state, at its annual meeting, shall examine the assessment-rolls of the several tax districts in the county, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the valuations in one tax district bear a just relation to the valuations in all the tax districts in the county; and the board may increase or diminish the aggregate valuations of real estate in any tax district, by adding or deducting such sum upon the hundred, as may, in its opinion, be necessary to produce a just relation between all the valuations of real estate in the county; but it shall, in no instance, change the aggregate valuations of all the tax districts from the aggregate valuation thereof as made by the assessors. [R. S., pt. 1, ch. 13, tit. 2, § 31; 8th ed., 1104, § 51. Description of real property of nonresidents.-The board. of supervisors of each county, at its annual meeting, shall examine the assessment-rolls of the several tax districts, and shall make such changes in the descriptions of the real property of nonresidents as may be necessary to render such descriptions sufficiently definite for the purposes of collection of taxes by sale thereof. If a sufficiently definite description can not be obtained during the session, the board shall cause the same to be obtained for the next annual session, and the property shall not be taxed until such description is obtained, and shall then be 1 |