(70 ILCS 2805/60) (from Ch. 42, par. 447.24)
Sec. 60.
Trial by jury.
If it is objected on
the part of any property assessed for such an improvement
that it will not be benefited thereby to the amount assessed
thereon and that it is assessed more than its proportionate
share of the cost of the improvement, and a jury is
expressly demanded in the written objection filed with
respect to such property, the court shall impanel a jury to
try that issue as to that property. As to any property as
to which the written objection fails to demand a jury, the
court shall try that issue as to such property without a
jury. Unless otherwise ordered by the court, all such
objections in which a jury is demanded shall be tried and
disposed of before a single jury. The assessment roll, as
returned by the officer who made it or as revised and
corrected by the court on the hearing of the legal
objections, shall be prima facie evidence of the correctness
of the amount assessed against each objecting owner but
shall not be counted as the testimony of any witness or
witnesses in the cause. That assessment roll may be
submitted to the jury and may be taken into the jury room by
the jury when it retires to deliberate on its verdict.
Either party may introduce such other evidence as may bear
upon that issue or issues. The hearing shall be conducted
as in other civil cases. If it appears that the property of
any objector is assessed more than it will be benefited by
the specified improvement or more than its proportionate
share of the cost of the improvement, the jury or court
shall so find, and it shall also find the amount for which
that property ought to be assessed, and judgment shall be
rendered accordingly.
(Source: P.A. 85-1137.)
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