People ex rel. Lafferty v. Owen

• Decision Date: 20 February 1919
• Docket Number: No. 12332.,12332.
• Citation: 122 N.E. 132,286 Ill. 638
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. LAFFERTY et al. v. OWEN et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

286 Ill. 638

122 N.E. 132

PEOPLE ex rel. LAFFERTY et al.

v.OWEN et al.

No. 12332.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 20, 1919.

Appeal from Circuit Court, McLean County; Sain Welty, Judge.

Information in the nature of quo warranto by the People, on the relation of Charles A. Lafferty and others, against Leslie J. Owen and others. Judgment of ouster, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.De Mange, Gilespie & De Mange, of Bloomington, for appellants.

Miles K. Young, State's Atty., and Sterling, Livingston & Whitmore, all of Bloomington (Sigmund Livingston, of Bloomington, of counsel), for appellees.

DUNCAN, C. J.

On December 21, 1917, upon leave granted, the people, upon the relation of Charles A. Lafferty and a number of others filed an information in the nature of quo warranto in the circuit court of McLean county against appellants, Leslie J. Owen and others, requiring them to show by what right they claimed to hold the offices of president and members of the board of education of a certain pretended high school district No. 333, situated in McLean county. To the information appellants filed a plea sufficient to show that the necessary steps had been taken to organize said territory into a high school district under the act of June 5, 1911 (Laws 1911, p. 505), and that the election for the organization of said district occurred February 15, 1916, and that at an election under said act duly called and advertised they were duly elected as president and members of said board of education March 4, 1916. They further averred in their plea that by virtue of the validating act of June 14, 1917 (Laws 1917, p. 744), they had levied and collected taxes, employed and paid teachers and janitors, rented a school house, and had caused to be conducted a high school in said district continuously since their election. Appellees replied to the plea, in substance, that this court on October 24, 1916, prior to the passage of the validating act of 1917, upon appeal had affirmed a judgment of the circuit court of McLean county quashing the record of high school district No. 333 in a proceeding by common-law writ of certiorari, in which the relators herein, as taxpayers and owners of land in said school district, were petitioners, and Benjamin C. Moore, county superintendent, and others, were defendants; that the judgment in the certiorari proceeding constitutes a bar to the operation of the validating act of 1917 upon district No. 333, and that the pendency of the certiorari proceeding in the circuit court, and the judgment therein, so invalidated appellants' election that the act of 1917 would not operate to validate it. Appellants filed a rejoinder, setting forth the judgments of the circuit court and of this court in the certiorari case, and also the opinions of the circuit judge and of the Supreme Court in that case, and the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of People v. Weis, 275 Ill. 581, 114 N. E. 331,alleged that the judgments of the circuit court and of this court in the certiorari case (Lafferty v. Moore, 275 Ill. 580, 114 N. E. 336), were based on the sole ground that the act of June 5, 1911, was unconstitutional, and further alleged that those judgments were not final judgments or binding on appellants because they were not parties to the judgments, and that those judgments did not prevent the validating act of 1917 from validating their election. Appellees demurred to appellants' rejoinder. Appellants moved to carry the demurrer back to appellees' replication. The trial court sustained appellees' demurrer to the rejoinder and overruled appellants' motion to carry the demurrer back. Appellants stood by their motion to carry back the demurrer and by their rejoinder and moved the court in arrest of judgment. The trial court overruled appellants' motion in arrest of judgment and entered judgment of ouster, from which appellants have appealed.

[1] The judgments of the circuit court and of this court in the certiorari proceedings are final judgments, which quashed the record of the high school district and...