McCormick v. Chicago Yacht Club

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: DUNN
• Citation: McCormick v. Chicago Yacht Club, 331 Ill. 514, 163 N.E. 418 (Ill. 1928)
• Decision Date: 25 October 1928
• Docket Number: No. 18989.,18989.
• Parties: McCORMICK et al. v. CHICAGO YACHT CLUB et al.

331 Ill. 514

163 N.E. 418

McCORMICK et al.

v.CHICAGO YACHT CLUB et al.

No. 18989.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 25, 1928.

Suit by Robert H. McCormick and others against the Chicago Yacht Club and others, wherein defendants filed cross-bill. From a decree dismissing the original bill, and granting relief prayed in the cross-bill, plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed in part, and reversed in part.

Appeal from Superior Court, Cook County; Walter P. Steffen, judge.

Wilson, McIlvaine, Hale & Templeton, of Chicago (William B. Hale and Calvin F. Selfridge, both of Chicago, of counsel), for appellants.

Sims, Welch, Godman & Stransky, of Chicago (Franklin J. Stransky and Timothy I. McKnight, both of Chicago, of counsel), for appellees.

DUNN, J.

The appellants, Robert H. McCormick, individually and as trustee, and others, are the owners of lots in the city of Chicago fronting on the west side of Michigan avenue and adjacent to the north side of Van Buren street, improved with a 20-story building leased to tenants, and being a part of fractional section 15, town 39 north, range 14 east of the third principal meridian, and situated between Randolph street and Park Row. They filed a bill in the superior court of Cook county against the Chicago Yacht Club to restrain it from constructing any building between the east line of Michigan avenue, from Randolph street to Park Row, and the waters of Lake Michigan, or in the waters of Lake Michigan contiguous to the harbor line of August 9, 1921, and from destroying, impairing, or obstructing the easements claimed by the complainants of light, air, passage, and view over the land eastward from their premises to the waters of Lake Michigan. The bill was amended, making the South Park Commissioners also a defendant, and the defendants filed separate answers. The yacht club also filed a cross-bill, praying for a decree establishing its title to the premises on which it proposes to construct a new club house, and its right to erect thereon a new club house building, wharves, and docks, and perpetually enjoining the complainants from commencing any other suit against the cross-complainant, involving the claims alleged by the complainants in their bill. The cross-bill was answered, issues were joined, the cause was heard upon the pleadings and a stipulation of facts, and a decree was rendered, dismissing the original bill for want of equity, granting the relief prayed in the cross-bill, and adjudging the costs against the complainants, from which the complainants have appealed to this court; a freehold (the perpetual easements claimed by the complainants) being involved.

The lots of the appellants, being a part of fractional section 15 and fronting on the west side of Michigan avenue, have appurtenantto them the same easements appurtenant to other lots similarly situated which were the subject-matter of the litigation in the so-called Lake Front Cases. City of Chicago v. Ward, 169 Ill. 392, 48 N. E. 927,38 L. R. A. 849, 61 Am. St. Rep. 185;Bliss v. Ward, 198 Ill. 104, 64 N. E. 705;Ward v. Field Museum, 241 Ill. 496, 89 N. E. 731;South Park Com'rs v. Ward & Co., 248 Ill. 299, 93 N. E. 910,21 Ann. Cas. 127. The nature and extent of the easements in question were considered in those cases. The history of the title to the Lake Front Park and the circumstances of the making and recording of the government plat of the Ft. Dearborn addition to the town of Chicago, and the subdivision and plat of fractional section 15 by the canal commissioners of the state of Illinois, which vested the title to the park in the city of Chicago and created the easements in the park which were litigated in the cases cited and are involved in this case, are set forth in those cases.

So far as essential to an understanding of this case, that history is summarized in the opinion of Mr. Justice Cartwright in Ward v. Field Museum, supra, and, without repeating it, we refer to that opinion for a statement of the facts up to the time that case arose. Statements in greater detail are found in City of Chicago v. Ward, supra, and Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois, 146 U. S. 387, 13 S. Ct. 110, 36 L. Ed. 1018, the latter a case which did not involve the easements in question, but did involve the title of the state and the city to the park and the adjacent land underneath the navigable waters of the lake. The case of South Park Com'rs v. Ward & Co., supra, following the three previous cases, reiterated their decision that, by the plats of the Ft. Dearborn addition to Chicago and of the subdivision of fractional section 15, the Lake Front Park was dedicated to the public as an open park, to be kept free from buildings, and that the city had no right to erect or permit the erection of any building upon any part of Lake Front Park without the consent of the abutting property owners, and going still further, held that the easements of the owners of lots fronting on the west side of Michigan avenue could not be condemned by the exercise of the power of eminent domain, and the Legislature had no power to authorize their condemnation. It was further held that the park extended to the waters of Lake Michigan, that the title thereto carried with it riparian rights incident to its location upon the banks of the lake, and that these riparian rights were property rights, which the city of Chicago held in trust in the same manner as it held title to the park itself, with no power to dispose of them contrary to the trust under which they are held for the people.

On September 22, 1890, the Secretary of War established a harbor line in the lake east of the park, and thereafter the submerged land between the harbor line and the park was filled in and became a part of the park, subject to the easements of lot owners. Bliss v. Ward, supra. The Chicago Yacht Club was originally organized on August 7, 1875, as a voluntary association for the purpose of encouraging sailing, yachting, boating, and navigation in Lake Michigan, and was organized as a private corporation not for profit on January 9, 1882. It has been in existence continuously, and engaged in the purposes for which it was organized, since that date. In 1899 the Secretary of War granted to it a permit to fill in a tract of land at the foot of Monroe street east of the harbor line of 1890 and build a club house there, and it built a club house on that tract, which it occupied until 1925. It is a threestory frame building about 60 feet in height. On August 9, 1921, the Secretary of War established a new harbor line, which is 366 feet east of the harbor line of 1890 and about 2,226 feet east of the west line of Michigan avenue. Pursuant to the request of the South Park Commissioners, the yacht club obtained a permit to fill in an area 300 feet north and south and 150 feet east and west, the western boundary of the tract being the new harbor line, and to maintain thereon a club house, and in 1925 the club house constructed in 1902 was moved to this location, where it has since remained. The South Park Commissioners were given permission by the Secretary of War to fill in the submerged land between the old and the new harbor lines, and they have built a curved sea wall substantially along the new harbor line, which extends 15 feet below and 5 feet above the surface of the water, and the submerged land between the sea wall and the old harbor line has been filled in and become a part of the park, subject to the easements of abutting lot owners.

The stipulation on which the cause was heard recites the following facts:

‘Twenty-fifth-The Chicago Yacht Club has continuously since its...