People ex rel. Beedy v. Regnier

• Decision Date: 12 November 1941
• Docket Number: No. 26131.,26131.
• Citation: 377 Ill. 562,37 N.E.2d 186
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. BEEDY et al. v. REGNIER et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

377 Ill. 562

37 N.E.2d 186

PEOPLE ex rel. BEEDY et al.

v.REGNIER et al.

No. 26131.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 15, 1941.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 12, 1941.

Quo warranto by the People, on the relation of V. G. Beedy and others, against Edmond Regnier and others, members of the Board of School DistrictNo. 307, Kankakee County, questioning their right to hold office as such directors.From judgment for the board, relators appeal.

Affirmed.Appeal from Circuit Court, Kankakee County; Luther B. bratton, judge.

Eva L. Minor and John H. Beckers, both of Kankakee, for appellants.

Walter C. Schneider and Armen R. Blanke, both of Kankakee, for appellees.

SHAW, Justice.

Upon leave granted the appellants filed an information in quo warranto in the circuit court of Kankakee county, against the appellees, members of the board of school district No. 307, in that county, questioning their right to hold office as such directors.After answer, reply and replication, evidence was heard and judgment entered in favor of the appellees and from that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

It is contended by the appellants(1) that the description of the lands included in the district is so vague, uncertain and indefinite as to make its limits impossible of determination, (2) that the district is not compact and contiguous and (3) that part of the district is included in a petition for organization of another community high school district.

The territory comprising the district is situated entirely within the townships of Bourbonnais and Rockville in Kankakee county.In the petition directed to the county superintendent of schools requestingthe calling of the election to create the district, the disputed portion is described as ‘sections twenty-five (25) twenty-six (26) twenty-seven (27) twenty-eight (28), thirty-two (32) thirty-three (33), thirty-four (34) thirty-five (35) and thirty-six (36) all in township thirty-two (32) north, range eleven (11) east of the Third P.M. in the Town of Rockville, in the county of Kankakee and State of Illinois,’ and the boundaries of this portion are described as from the ‘northeast corner of Section twenty-five (25) Township thirty-two (32) north, Range eleven (11) east of the Third P.M., thence west to the northwest corner of section twenty-eight (28), Township thirty-two (32) north, range eleven (11) east of the Third P.M., thence south to the southwest corner of said section twenty-eight (28) thence west to the northwest corner of section thirty-one (31) Township thirty-two (32) north, range eleven (11) east of the Third P.M., thence south to the southeast corner of section thirty-one (31).’

The evidence shows that the lands included in the petition and described as sections 27,28,32,33, and34 were not surveyed by the government into sections and sub-sections at the time the original survey fo the township was made, but had been previously surveyed and allotted as Indian reservations.A copy of the original survey shows a fractional section 27 that is composed of two lots lying east of the reservations and adjoining section 26; a fractional section 34 that is also composed of two lots lying east of the reservations and adjoining section 35, and that there is a strip of land divided into lots lying north or the reservations and adjoining sections 21and22, located in what would be sections 27and28 if they had ever been divided into sections.The lands lying within the reservations have been subdivided into lots and transfers have been made according to the lots in the respective reservation.Two surveyors testified that Rockville township was not a regular geographic township with numbered sections from 1 to 36, but that a competent surveyor could locate and identify the boundaries of the district by running lines from known points and that these boundaries would include the lands described as sections 27,28,32,33and34.

To uphold the judgment of the trial courtthe appellees contend that the description and the boundaries of the district are sufficient as they can be located by any competent surveyor and are definite enough to inform all interested parties of the extent of the territory included.The rules applied in the case of corporate boundaries are the same as those applied to deeds and grants.People v. Astle, 337 Ill. 253, 169 N.E. 185.In Weber v. Adler, 311 Ill. 547, 143 N.E. 95, 96, this court said ‘If the description is uncertain and requires parol evidence to locate the property specific performance cannot be decreed; but if the contract contains a definite description and there is a latent ambiguity, so that the contract may apply to different pieces of property, it is sufficient if the property can be located with the aid of extrinsic evidence.A description is sufficiently definite when it will enable a surveyor, by the aid of extrinsic evidence, to locate the property.White v. Hermann, 51 Ill. 243, 99 Am.Dec. 543;Fowler v. Fowler, 204 Ill. 82, 68 N.E. 414;Baker v. Puffer, 299 Ill. 486, 132 N.E. 429.’

Where a description contains a patent ambiguity or one which appears on the face of the writing itself, the uncertainty in the description cannot be cured by extrinsic evidence.A latent ambiguity occurs where a writing appears on its face clear and unambiguous, but which, in fact, is shown by extrinsic evidence to be uncertain in meaning, or where a description apparently plain and unambiguous is shown to fit different pieces of property.In such case, the ambiguity being raised by extrinsic evidence, the same kind of evidence may be admitted to explain or identify the property referred to in the writing.The petition in the case at bar contains no patent ambiguity and it was not error for the trial court to admit extrinsic evidence to show the territory included within the district.That evidence shows, and it was not contradicted, that even though the territory was not actually divided into a geographic township containing 36 sections, a competent surveyor could locate and identify the land referred to and therefrom identify the boundaries of the school district.Thus the description is certain and definite enough to inform all...