Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Barber Asphalt Co., 197 U.S. 430 (1905)

Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company


v. Barber Asphalt Paving Company
No. 170


Argued March 7-8, 1905
Decided April 3, 1905
197 U.S. 430

ERROR TO THE COURT OF APPEALS
OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY

Syllabus

In determining whether an improvement does or does not benefit property within the assessment district, the land should be considered simply in it general relations, and apart from its particular use at the time, and an assessment, otherwise legal, for grading, paving, and curbing an adjoining street is not void under the Fourteenth Amendment because the lot is not benefited by the improvement owing to its present particular use.

A system of delusive exactness should not be extracted from the very general language of the Fourteenth Amendment in order to destroy methods of taxation which were well known when the amendment was adopted, and which no one then supposed would be disturbed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.