Case Name: City of Louisville v. Annie C. Courtney
Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Kentucky
Decision Date: 1873-11-15
Citations: 7 Ky. Op. 308
Docket Number: 
Parties: City of Louisville v. Annie C. Courtney.
Judges: 
Reporter: Kentucky Opinions, containing the unreported opinions of the Court of Appeals
Volume: 7
Pages: 308–309

Head Matter:
City of Louisville v. Annie C. Courtney.
Municipal Corporations — Public Improvements — Taxation. '
Land within the city limits, which has not received any benefit from the city government to any appreciable degree, can not be taxed for public improvements.
APPEAL PROM LOUISVILLE CHANCERY COURT.
November 15, 1873.

Opinion:
Opinion by
Judge Lindsay:
We are satisfied from the facts presented by the record before us, that the fifty-one acres of land, owned by Mrs. Courtney, received no direct benefits from the municipal government of the city of Louisville in the year 1870. The population in the vicinity of this land had not then become sufficiently dense to require the presence of the city police; and the peculiar improvements constituting in part the consideration for city taxation, had not then reached its immediate vicinity. The proximity of the land to such a center of trade and population, doubtless, enhanced its value, but this enhancement was caused in no appreciable degree by the city government. It seems to us that this is one of the cases that at "first blush," strikes the mind as an attempt to take private property for public use without compensation.
Burnett, for appellant.
Bodiley & Simrall, for appellee.
The judgment of the vice-chancellor requiring the collection of the assesment for 1870, must therefore be affirmed.