Supreme Court Summaries

Opinions filed April 17, 2008

No. 104922     Alvarez v. Pappas

      Appellate citation: 374 Ill. App. 3d 39.

      JUSTICE GARMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

      Chief Justice Thomas and Justices Freeman, Fitzgerald, Karmeier, and Burke concurred in the judgment and opinion.

      Justice Kilbride dissented, with opinion.

      The plaintiffs in this 2005 Cook County class action paid real estate taxes in duplicate by mistake–once directly and once through their lenders. They sought to recover these overpayments from the county treasurer, the defendant here, but were refused. The circuit and appellate courts also denied relief, and plaintiffs appealed to the supreme court. They argued that the treasurers of all the other counties in Illinois would refund such monies no matter when the error was discovered.

      In the opinion issued today, the supreme court noted the principle of law that a taxpayer may not recover taxes that are voluntarily paid, even if the taxing body imposed or assessed the taxes illegally, unless some form of exception to this “voluntary payment doctrine” is authorized by statute.

      The Property Tax Code contains a provision which allows for certain types of tax recoveries within five years. The parties contested the applicability of this statute, and the supreme court construed it to be applicable here. However, it was undisputed that the plaintiffs had sought relief more than five years after the overpayments were made.

      The supreme court held that the voluntary payment doctrine precluded these plaintiffs from receiving a refund absent statutory authority. It also rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments that the duplicate payments were tangible personal property subjected to the Unclaimed Property Act or the Estrays and Lost Property Act.

      The appellate court’s affirmance of the circuit court’s refusal to order a refund was upheld.