Ickes v. Board of Sup'rs of Macon County

• Citation: 415 Ill. 557,114 N.E.2d 669
• Decision Date: 24 September 1953
• Docket Number: No. 32834,32834
• Parties: ICKES et al. v. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF MACON COUNTY et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

Page 669

114 N.E.2d 669

415 Ill. 557

ICKES et al. v. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF MACON COUNTY et al.

No. 32834.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 24, 1953.

Kenneth E. Evans, State's Atty., Roy B. Foster, and David C. Jack, all of Decatur, for appellants.

Charles E. Lee, of Decatur, for appellees.

FULTON, Justice.

This is an appeal from the circuit court of Macon County involving the construction, interpretation and constitutionality of the Indigent War Veterans Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1951, chap. 23, pars. 154-154i), also known as the Bogardus Act. The appellants are the county of Macon and the board of supervisors of Macon County, and the appellees are the superintendent of the veterans assistance commission of Macon County and two taxpayers. The action originated as one for mandamus, in which the court issued an alias writ against the appellants.

There is no conflict as to the facts of the situation. Section 2, par. 154a of the act provides for the assistance of veterans of the wars and campaigns in which the United States has been engaged and their families who have been residents of the State for a year or more. The county board shall provide such sums as may be just and necessary to be drawn by the commander, quartermaster or commandant of specified veterans organizations on the recommendation of the assistance committee of the post, ship, camp or chapter. On failure of the county board to appropriate for such assistance, the organization, its commandant, or the superintendent of any veterans assistance commission shall apply to the circuit court for a writ of mandamus, and upon proof of the justice and necessity of the claim the writ shall issue. It is apparent from the language employed in this section that it applies only to writs of mandamus to require the board to appropriate just and necessary sums to meet claims for assistance only.

Section 9 (par. 154h), in essence, provides for the establishment of a county veterans assistance commission where the county has two or more posts, camps, chapters or detachments of specified veterans organizations with one delegate and one alternate from each division making up its membership. This commission and the president of the county board are to oversee the distribution of funds. Section 10 (par. 154i) vests the executive powers of the commission in a superintendent elected by the commission from among veterans of certain specified wars, who is to have charge of the office provided by the county board. The county is to furnish necessary supplies and also, in counties where a commission has been organized, 'appropriate such additional sums, upon recommendation of the Veterans Assistance Commission, as may be deemed necessary, to properly compensate the officers and employees required to administer such assistance,' with a ceiling on such salaries in counties the size of Macon of $3600 per year for superintendent and $2400 for secretary.

Prior to 1950 a veterans assistance commission was organized in Macon County and a recommendation was made for an appropriation to pay the necessary salaries. The board failed to appropriate for that year and a mandamus action was brought, to which the board filed a motion to dismiss. This motion was denied and the board stood on the motion, whereby the circuit court issued a writ. The board appealed but subsequently dismissed the appeal and appropriated for that year the sum of $2400 for the superintendent and $1500 for a secretary. In the fiscal year 1951-1952 the board appropriated the sums requested by the commission for the expenses and salaries.

In 1952, the veterans assistance commission made a recommendation asking for a total appropriation of $7400, which included the maximum of $3600 for the salary of a superintendent and $2400 for a secretary. The board did not follow this recommendation but instead made a total appropriation of $4000, which fixed the superintendent's salary at $2100 and the secretary's at $1500. On October 1, 1952, the appellees filed a motion to redocket the original cause and a complaint for an alias writ. Appellants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for an alias writ, which motion was overruled. Appellants then answered the complaint, a hearing was had, and the court then made a finding that the appellants had acted capriciously and arbitrarily in failing to 'make such appropriations of moneys to provide an office and employees for the Veterans Assistance Commission of Macon County, Illinois, as directed by the Court in previous Writ of Mandamus entered herein.' The alias writ then ordered the board to make such appropriations as are necessary to provide and equip an office and such additional sums as might be deemed necessary to properly compensate officers and employees required to administer such assistance.

At the hearing, the present superintendent testified that the original superintendent had died and that he was new, that he was unable to work for the amount appropriated, that some 12 to 35 people a day came to the veterans assistance office, and that he had no prior experience, except as a volunteer, in the type of work he was then doing. The secretary testified that she had been secretary for the entire time the...