Alderman v. the Sch. Directors
| Decision Date | 30 September 1878 |
| Citation | 1878 WL 10251,91 Ill. 179 |
| Parties | GEORGE W. ALDERMAN et al.v.THE SCHOOL DIRECTORS, etc. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
APPEAL from the City Court of the City of Aurora; the Hon. FRANK M. ANNIS, Judge, presiding.
Messrs. BOTSFORD & BARRY, for the appellants.
Mr. N. F. NICHOLS, and Mr. A. J. HOPKINS, for the appellees.
This is an action of trespass, commenced before a justice of the peace of DuPage county, by appellees, the school directors of district No. 5, township 37, ranges 10 and 11, in the counties of Will and DuPage, against appellants, for breaking and entering into a school house located in range 11 in DuPage county. The case, by appeal and subsequent change of venue, came into the City Court of Aurora, where, at the March term, 1877, a trial was had, resulting in a judgment for $50 against appellants. The first and principal point made by appellants is, in substance, that a plea of nul tiel corporation is a plea in bar, and when interposed in bar, operates as a special traverse of the averment the plaintiff is a corporation and puts it upon proof of that fact, and even goes further and questions the right of the plaintiff to sue in the name in which it has sued, and that on the trial of a case appealed from a justice of the peace written pleadings are not required, and it was necessary, before the plaintiff could recover in this action, it should prove its legal corporate existence. And the conclusion is reached by counsel, from a consideration of the law and the evidence in the record, there was, and under the statute could be, no such legally formed and legally existing corporation as the appellee district.
In the view we take of this case it is not necessary or expedient for us to determine this issue. The evidence, at least, does show that for some thirty years, since 1846, the appellee district has claimed to be a legally organized union district. The people have continuously elected directors, some from the territory in the one county and some from the territory in the other county. These directors have levied and collected taxes for school purposes, have employed teachers and have carried on and governed the schools, and have sold and built school-houses, and in general have performed all the duties and have exercised the powers of a legally organized district. If not a de jure it was and is at least a de facto district.
It was held by this court in the case of Trumbo v. The People, 75 Ill. 562, that...
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Evens v. Anderson
...of a public corporation. 32 Cyc. 1424; Mullikin v. City of Bloomington, 72 Ind. 161; Renwick v. Hall, 84 Ill. 162; Alderman v. School Directors, 91 Ill. 179; Ogle v. City of Belleville, 143 Ill.App. 514, N.E. 353; Miller v. Town of Palermo, 12 Kan. 14; A.T. & S.F.R.R. Co. v. Wilson, 33 Kan.......
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Drainage Com'rs v. Giffin
...at least corporations de facto, and that the legality of the organization of a corporation could not be attacked collaterally. Alderman v. Directors, 91 Ill. 179, was trespass, and the plaintiffs were directors of a de facto district; and the same rule was there declared. In Hinze v. People......
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Evens v. Anderson
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