People ex rel. Lord v. Bruennemer

• Citation: 48 N.E. 43,168 Ill. 482
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. LORD v. BRUENNEMER et al.
• Decision Date: 01 November 1897
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

168 Ill. 482

48 N.E. 43

PEOPLE ex rel. LORD

v.BRUENNEMER et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 1, 1897.

Appeal from circuit court, Kankakee county; C. R. Starr, Judge.

Quo warranto by the people, on the relation of Alexander Lord, against William F. Bruennemer, Emery Souligne, John Moroff, Louis Clark, and B. S. Ford. From an order dismissing the information, relator appeals. Motion to dismiss appeal denied. Reversed.

H. L. Richardson, Sp. State's Atty., W. H. Savary, W. R. Hunter, and Granger & Davidson, for appellant.

Paddock & Cooper, for appellees.

CARTWRIGHT, J.

This suit was begun by information in the nature of quo warranto against appellees, to test their right to exercise corporate privileges as a township board of education.Appellees pleaded to the information, and, issues being made and tried before the court, the information was dismissed, at the cost of the relator. A motion by appellees to dismiss the appeal was taken with the case, and will be first disposed of. The grounds of the motion are that the proceeding is of a criminal nature, and the people can have no appeal, since such action would place the defendants twice in jeopardy, and that, if the judgment can be appealed from, an appeal can only be taken to the appellate court. The action of quo warranto is a purely civil one (People v. Shaw, 13 Ill. 581;Ensminger v. People, 47 Ill. 384;People v. Boyd, 132 Ill. 60, 23 N. E. 342; High, Extr. Rem. § 603); and it is so declared by the statute, which also gives the right of appeal in express terms (Rev. St. 1893, c. 112, § 7). This answers the argument on the first ground of the motion.

When an election results in favor of establishing a township high school, and a board of education is elected, the statute provides as follows: ‘For the purpose of building a school house, supporting the school and paying other necessary expenses, the township shall be regarded as a school district, and the township board of education shall have the power and discharge the duties of directors for such district in all respects.’ Rev. St. c. 122, art. 3, § 41. The information in this action charged that there was no valid election and no valid organization of the township as a school district for said purposes, so that no legal corporate entity was created. The purpose of the suit is to determine whether the district was legally organized, and, if not organized, the assumed board of education has no existence. The alleged franchise to be a school district for high school purposes is challenged and involved, and the appellate court could have no jurisdiction. People v. O'Hair, 128 Ill. 20, 21 N. E. 211. In questioning the organization, the proceeding was properly brought against the defendants who assumed to exercise the corporate powers of the alleged corporation. People v. City of Spring Valley, 129 Ill. 169, 21 N. E. 843. The motion to dismiss the appeal is overruled.

The defendants, being called upon to show their authority for the exercise of corporate powers, set out by their plea a proceeding for establishing a township high school for township 31 N., range 12 E. of the third P. M., in Kankakee county, Ill., by means of an election held for that purpose, and a subsequent election, at which they were chosen as a township board of education for such township. The information alleges that the city of Kankakee had a population of not less than 1,000, and not over 100,000, and was situated within two township, being partly in township 31, and partly in township 30 N., range 13 W. of the second P. M., and that said township 31, together with said city, constituted a school township for high school purposes. In pleading to this allegation, the defendants admitted the population and location of the city, but averred that a majority of the inhabitants resided on township 30, and also set up that said city was included in a special school district formed by an act approved February 16, 1865. The proceeding was had and conducted for the organization of that part of township 31 outside of the city of Kankakee as a school district for township high school purposes, and the defendants have levied a tax for such purposes on the property within the township outside of the city and special school district created by the act of 1865. If the city of Kankakee is a part of township 31 for high school purposes, there was no...