The appellate court considered the validity of a tax exemption granted by a legislative charter the same year that the Civil War ended. Plaintiff, the charter holder, filed a lawsuit seeking to establish that the exemption could not be altered by any of the defendants pursuant to the normal administrative process that governs modern, use-based tax exemptions. The circuit court found that the plaintiff had not exhausted its administrative remedies and dismissed the complaint. The appellate court reversed and remanded, explaining that because of the unique nature of the tax exemption created by the legislature, the exemption was not subject to the administrative process for modification or elimination that applies to other use-based tax exemptions and, as a result, the plaintiff had no obligation to exhaust the administrative process. (LANNERD and VANCIL, concurring)
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Administrative Exhaustion