Case Name: NEWARK HOMEBUILDERS COMPANY, PROSECUTOR, v. TOWNSHIP OF BERNARDS, RESPONDENT
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1917-05-21
Citations: 90 N.J.L. 361
Docket Number: 
Parties: NEWARK HOMEBUILDERS COMPANY, PROSECUTOR, v. TOWNSHIP OF BERNARDS, RESPONDENT.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 90
Pages: 361–362

Head Matter:
NEWARK HOMEBUILDERS COMPANY, PROSECUTOR, v. TOWNSHIP OF BERNARDS, RESPONDENT.
Submitted July 6, 1916
Decided May 21, 1917.
Tlie interest, which a landowner must pay on the amount of liis assessment for sidewalk improvements, does not, begin to ran until the amount of such assessment has been definitely ascer'lained.
On cerliorari.
Before Justices Swayze, Minturn and Kalisch.
For the prosecutor, Arthur A. Palmer.
For the township, Harrison P. Lindabury.

Opinion:
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Swayze, J.
An assessment for sidewalk improvements was set aside and a new assessment ordered. The amounts to he assessed have been agreed upon, and. the only question now submitted to ns is from what time interest should run on the assessment. We think it should not begin to run until the amount is ascertained by the court. Until that time the landowner is in no default; he cannot pay until the amount is known. That this is the rule seems to have been taken for granted in State, ex rel. Miller, v. Love, 37 N. J. L. 261. The cases cited on behalf of the township only hold that interest paid by the municipality is a part of the cost of the improvement. No doubt this is true, and we must assume, that the total cost required to be assessed includes all interest paid by the township. We cannot go back to February 4th, 1915, and, by allowing interest oil the assessment from that date, compel the property owner to pay interest on interest for a time antedating the day when the amount of his own liability becomes known, and on interest that may not have been paid by the township until long after that date and up to the present time. That would mean not only compound interest but compound interest in advance.