People v. O'Hair

Citation128 Ill. 20,21 N.E. 211
PartiesPEOPLE v. O'HAIR et al.
Decision Date05 April 1889
CourtSupreme Court of Illinois

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Appeal from appellate court, Third district.

Wiley & Neal, Jas. A. Connolly, and Chas. G. Eckhart, for appellant.

Craig & Craig, for appellees.

SCHOLFIELD, J.

This was a proceeding by information in the nature of a quo warranto in the circuit court of Coles county to determine the existence of a certain claimed drainage district as a corporation. The precise question presented is shown by the following quotation from the information: ‘And said state's attorney therefore gives the court to understand and be informed that said pretended drainage district, called Union District No. 2,’ was attempted to be formed when and while said paper in writing, purporting to be a petition, did not contain the signatures of a majority of the adult persons owning lands in said district, who were the owners of more than one-third of the land situate in said proposed district, and did not contain the signatures of the owners of the major part of the land, who constitute one-third or more of the owners of the land, as is required by the statute, and that said pretended Union District No. 2 was not legally organized and formed, and was and is not a drainage district under and in accordance with the statute; and therefore said state's attorney says that Michael E. O'Hair, Joseph McNeil, and Louis Grooms, since the 4th day of June, 1886, have held and executed, and now hold and execute, without any warrant or right, the office of drainage commissioners of said pretended Union Drainage District No. 2, of the towns of Seven Hickory and Humboldt, which said office they, and each of them, during all the time aforesaid, have usurped, and still do usurp, to the damage of the said people,' etc. The law under which the organization of the drainage district was attempted makes the commissioners of highways in each town in the several counties adopting township organization drainage commissioners in and for all drainage districts in their respective towns. 1 Starr & C. St. p. 942, § 99. The respondents are conceded to be commissioners of highways of the town, and the only question is whether they, being such, are also a body politic and corporate, styled ‘drainage commissioners;’ and this turns solely upon whether the drainage district is lawfully organized. The privilege or right to be a corporation is a franchise. Fietsam v. Hay, 122 Ill. 293, 13 N. E. Rep. 501; Mining Co. v....

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8 cases
  • Marnik v. Northwestern Packing Co.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • 13 Mayo 1948
    ......        [79 N.E.2d 57]People" ex rel. Groff v. Board of Education, 383 Ill. 166, 48 N.E.2d 954. In Chicago City Ry. Co. v. People ex rel. Story, 73 Ill. 541, this court observed: \xE2"......
  • People v. Union Trust Bank, 31435
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • 18 Mayo 1950
  • People ex rel. Bondurant v. Marquiss
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • 24 Octubre 1901
  • People ex rel. Lord v. Bruennemer
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • 1 Noviembre 1897
    ...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 corpo......
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