People ex rel. Hoagland v. Streeper

• Decision Date: 20 September 1957
• Docket Number: No. 34398,34398
• Citation: 12 Ill.2d 204,145 N.E.2d 625
• Parties: The PEOPLE ex rel. Karl K. HOAGLAND et al., Petitioners, v. I. H. STREEPER, Judge, Respondent.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 625

145 N.E.2d 625

12 Ill.2d 204

The PEOPLE ex rel. Karl K. HOAGLAND et al., Petitioners, v. I. H. STREEPER, Judge, Respondent.

No. 34398.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 20, 1957.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 19, 1957.

John M. Dalton, Atty. Gen. of Missouri, and Robert L. Hyder, Jefferson City, Mo., and Karl K. Hoagland, Alton, for petitioners.

Schaefer O'Neill, Anthony W. Daly and Emerson Baetz, Alton, for respondent.

Patrick S. O'Neill, Corporation Counsel, Alton, for amicus curiae, City of Alton.

DAVIS, Chief Justice.

This is an original petition for a writ of mandamus against the respondent, as judge of the city court of Alton, to compel him to expunge orders entered in an action brought in that court by the city of Alton against the county of St. Charles in the State of Missouri, the county court of St. Charles County, and the judges of the county court, to enjoin the conveyance of the portion of the Clark Bridge within the city of Alton, and to appoint a receiver. The State of Missouri and the People of the State of Illinois ex rel. Karl K. Hoagland, petitioners, were not parties to the action in the city court of Alton, but here claim to have interests affected by the decree. Because serious questions of public importance appeared to be involved, we granted leave to file this original petition.

The Clark Bridge, a part of a highway facility constructed in 1928 between Alton, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri, and here in controversy, was constructed over the Mississippi River, and the Lewis Bridge over the Missouri River. These bridges were connected by a three-mile private roadway through St. Charles County, Missouri, and the total facility affords the most direct route between Alton and St. Louis, and is a link in U.S. Route 67, serving through traffic between Northwestern Illinois and the southwestern States. The bridges and connecting highway were constructed in 1928 by private parties pursuant to Federal authorization and local franchises. Pub.Law 274 H.R. 10090, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., 44 Stat. 620; Pub.Law 679, H.R. 16778, 69th Cong., 2nd Sess., 44 Stat. 1270; Ordinance 1601, City of Alton, Feb. 9, 1927.

Due to financial difficulties of the promoters and their successors, the entire private facility was sold to the county of St. Charles, Missouri, in 1936. It was thereafter managed by the county court of St. Charles County, a political unit in all material ways comparable to an Illinois county board of supervisors. In the same year the county entered into a contract with the State Highway Commission of Missouri, whereby the Highway Commission purchased the connecting highway and was given an option to acquire the remaining part of the facility when the revenue bonds had been retired. Pursuant to this contract the Highway Commission acquired the Lewis Bridge on December 29, 1950, and freed it from toll charges after January 1, 1951.

Subsequently it became apparent that flood waters would render the connecting highway between the two bridges impassable from time to time, and in 1952, the county and the Highway Commission modified their 1936 contract to provide that the Highway Commission would construct a separate levee-type connecting highway to be paid for out of tolls collected by the county until June 30, 1956. The modified contract also permitted the county to use toll revenues to 'improve, alter and enlarge the approach to the Clark Bridge in the City of Alton, Illinois.'

Thereafter tolls in the sum of $2,140,000, collected at the sole toll station in Alton, were used to construct the new connecting highway in St. Charles County, but no funds were used to improve the approach to the Clark Bridge in Alton.

On or about June, 1, 1956, the county of St. Charles announced that it would discontinue the collection of toll charges on July 1, 1956, and on June 25, 1956, it ordered the conveyance of the Clark Bridge and its approaches to 'the State of Missouri acting by and through the State Highway Commission of Missouri.'

Thereafter, on June 28, 1956, the city of Alton filed a complaint in the city court of Alton against the county of St. Charles in the State of Missouri, a body politic and corporate, the county court of St. Charles County and the judges thereof. The complaint set up the threatened transfer of the bridge; that the Clark Bridge enters the principal east-west business street in Alton at grade and at a right angle, interferes with traffic and constitutes a hazard to the public; that it was contemplated that tolls would be charged after the retirement of the outstanding bonds for the purpose of furnishing funds for the construction of new bridge approaches in Alton.

It was further alleged that the city of Alton and its citizens would suffer grave and irreparable damage by the threatened transfer of the bridge in that (1) no funds would be available for the construction of new Alton approaches; (2) the city of Alton would be deprived of all control of the portion of bridge located therein; (3) the city may be liable for injuries sustained on the approaches without a right to recover over; and (4) the bridge, if unguarded, would create a hazard to children and other pedestrians.

The complaint prayed for an injunction against the transfer of that part of the bridge facility lying within the city of Alton and against the elimination of toll charges, and for the appointment of a receiver to take over and control that portion of the bridge facility.

On June 28, a temporary injunction issued, a receiver eas appointed, and the court ordered that the receiver should cease to act if the defendants acquiesced in the provisions of the injunction. A further order was entered on June 29 continuing the receivership, and authorizing the employment of persons and the collection of tolls. The receiver thereafter took over the portion of the bridge facility within the city of Alton and has been exacting tolls for its use.

Neither the State of Missouri nor the State Highway Commission were made parties to the injunction suit. Summons and a copy of the complaint were served on all the defendants by service on L. H. Maas, as agent of the county of St. Charles, and by further service on A. J. Echele, assistant manager, agent and clerk of the county at their office in Alton, by the Sheriff of Madison County, and were also personally served upon all of the judges of the county court of the county of St. Charles in the State of Missouri, by the sheriff of St. Charles County, Missouri, in said county and State. Similar service was obtained in the State of Missouri on the county court of St. Charles County and on the county of St. Charles.

The entire bridge facility was subsequently conveyed to the State of Missouri, by and through its State Highway Commission. Thereafter on August 10, 1956, default was entered against the named defendants for want of appearance; and the city court heard the plaintiff's evidence and entered a final decree. That decree found inter alia, that defendants' use of their rights and franchises with respect to the bridge facility 'was not fair or equitable when it exercised its power to collect tolls to the extent necessary to furnish necessary improvements without burdening the taxpayers of its own territory, but declined to exercise its power to the extent necessary to furnish like improvement without burden to the taxpayers of the territory adjoining,' and that such constituted a fraud, 'well within the power and duty of a Court of equity to prevent.' The decree continued the injunction until further order of the court, and the receivership until the approval of some plan for the construction of necessary approaches to the Clark Bridge in the city of Alton.

The petitioners contend that the proceedings and orders of the city court of Alton are void and should be expunged because (1) they ignore the immunity of the State of Missouri from judicial interference, and (2) there was a lack of jurisdiction of persons and subject matter appearing on the face of the record.

The respondent urges that the immunity of a sovereign cannot be extended to lands in another state; that proper service was had upon the county of St. Charles; and that joinder of the State of Missouri was not indispensable.

In determining these issues, we must be mindful of the office of an original petition for writ of mandamus, and of the record and issues it presents. The record before us consists solely of the petition, answer and response, together with the exhibits attached thereto. Mandamus is a summary, drastic common-law writ of an extraordinary character, and is sometimes called the highest judicial writ known to the law. People ex rel. Dolan v. Dusher, 411 Ill. 535, 104 N.E.2d 775; People ex rel. Koester v. Board of Review, 351 Ill. 301, 184 N.E. 325, 85 A.L.R. 1303.

In order to prevail, the petitioners must establish by the pleadings before us that the city court of Alton was without jurisdiction over the parties or the subject matter, or that it was without jurisdiction to enter the type of order complained of. Here, we concern ourselves neither with possible errors in the trial court, nor with an abuse of judicial discretion. People ex rel. Brignall v. Lewe, 383 Ill. 549, 50 N.E.2d 577.

There can be no question that the city court of Alton is invested with general chancery jurisdiction. Ill.Rev.Stat.1955, chap. 37, par. 333; Conrad v. Conrad, 396 Ill. 101, 71 N.E.2d 54; Baker v. Rockabrand, 118 Ill. 365, 8 N.E. 456. It is axiomatic that a court of chancery may assume jurisdiction of a cause on the ground of irreparable injury or fraud, and may issue injunction and appoint a receiver in aid of and to enforce its equitable remedies.

In 1928, the entire toll bridge facility was constructed by a private corporation pursuant to appropriate acts of Congress, authority of the Secretary of War, franchises from the city of Alton, and presumably from the States of Illinois and...