## Facts

- The Village of Barrington lay partly in Cook County and partly in Lake County, Illinois.
- Certain taxing districts overlapped both counties, including the Village of Barrington, the Barrington Park District, and School District No. 4, and each levied taxes on all property within district boundaries.
- C. B. Allyn owned real property in the Cook County portion of Barrington and was taxed by those overlapping districts.
- Assessment practices differed between counties: property in Lake County was assessed at a substantially lower percentage of fair cash value than comparable property in Cook County.
- Because the same district tax rates applied to different assessment levels, similar properties within the same districts allegedly bore materially different tax burdens depending on the county where located.
- Allyn paid under protest and objected to the county collector’s application for judgment and order of sale, claiming the district taxes were non-uniform and discriminatory.
- The county court overruled the objections and entered judgment for the taxes; Allyn appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether taxes levied by common taxing districts operating in two counties are unconstitutional or invalid as to a taxpayer in one county because comparable property in the same districts but in the other county is assessed at a lower percentage of fair cash value.
2. Whether a taxpayer may defeat a tax judgment for district levies in the county where the property lies solely by proving inter-county disparities in assessment levels, without showing fraud or equivalent misconduct in that county’s assessment process.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for the county collector.
- The Court held that inter-county differences in fractional assessment levels, standing alone, do not make the overlapping districts’ taxes void as applied to property in Cook County.
- The Court concluded Allyn failed to show fraud or constructive fraud in the assessment of his property or its class within Cook County.

## Legal Principles

- Constitutional uniformity in property taxation is not violated by mere inequality or error in assessments; invalidation requires fraud or the equivalent, such as systematic, arbitrary, and gross disparity amounting to constructive fraud.
- A taxing district’s levy is not rendered invalid merely because assessment officials in different counties apply different practical assessment ratios; the district sets rates, while county officials determine assessed valuations.
- In a tax objection proceeding, a taxpayer generally must show discriminatory treatment within the county where the property is assessed, not solely that property in another county within the same district is assessed more favorably.
- Courts will not use a county tax-judgment proceeding to perform inter-county equalization, a function assigned to administrative equalization mechanisms.

## Conclusion

The court sustained the challenged taxes, holding that disparities in assessment levels between counties within the same taxing districts do not invalidate district levies absent proof of fraud or constructive fraud in the taxpayer’s county assessment process.


People ex rel. Schlaeger v. Allyn, 393 Ill. 154, 65 N.E.2d 392 (Ill. 1946)