People v. Salomon
| Citation | 51 Ill. 37,1869 WL 5267 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ex rel.JOHN M. WILSON et al., South Park Commissioners,v.EDWARD S. SALOMON, County Clerk of Cook County. |
| Decision Date | 30 June 1869 |
| Court | Supreme Court of Illinois |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
This is an application to this court for a peremptory writ of mandamus. The opinion contains a statement of the case.
Messrs. BECKWITH, AYER & KALES, for the relators.
Messrs. STORRS & WILSON and Mr. JOHN J. MCKINNON, for the respondent.
This is an application by John M. Wilson and others, styling themselves South Park Commissioners, for a peremptory mandamus against Edward S. Salomon, the clerk of the county court of Cook county, to compel him, as such clerk, to receive and file in his office, forthwith, a certain estimate transmitted to him by the petitioners, of the amount of money that they allege will be required to be raised by taxation the next succeeding year, for the improvement, maintenance and government of the South Park; and to compel him to proceed to levy or assess the amount certified in such estimate, upon the taxable property in the towns of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake, in the next general tax warrants, for the collection of State and county taxes in those towns.
It is stipulated, that the petition shall stand in the place of an alternative writ, to which a motion to quash has been interposed, so that, the question, whether certain acts of the general assembly mentioned in the petition, are so far valid, that the amount certified to the respondent by the South Park Commissioners, ought to be levied and collected as a tax as provided in those acts, and the further question, whether the relators are precluded of their remedy by mandamus, by reason of the pendency of a suit, by injunction particularly mentioned in a stipulation on file, may be fully presented and decided.
The opinion alleges, that on the 24th of February, 1869, an act of the general assembly of this State was duly approved, entitled, “an act to provide for the location and maintenance of a park for the towns of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake.”
By section one of this act, the governor of the State was required to appoint five persons, who, and their successors, are constituted a board of public park commissioners, to be known under the name of the South Park Commissioners, each of the commissioners, before entering upon the duties of his office, was required to take an oath, well and properly to discharge the duties of his office for the interest of the public, and to give a bond in the penal sum of fifty thousand dollars, with one or more sureties to be approved by the judge of the circuit court of Cook county, payable to the treasurer of Cook county, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duties under the act.
By section 2, provision is made for fixing the terms of office of the several members, and for organizing, by the election of one of their number as president, and one of their number as auditor, and by the appointment of a treasurer, who should be required to give a bond, with not less than three sufficient sureties, for the faithful discharge of his duties, in the penal sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be approved by the judge of the same circuit court. A secretary was required to be chosen; a seal to be adopted, which they could alter at pleasure; a record to be kept of their proceedings; no compensation allowed the commissioners, except to the president; vacancies to be filled by appointment of the judge of the circuit court of Cook county, and the board is declared a body politic and corporate, and to have and enjoy all the powers necessary for the purposes of the act.
Those purposes are declared by the fourth section, which are, the selection of certain described lands by the commissioners, within ninety days after their organization, situate in the towns of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake, which lands, when acquired, are to be held, managed and controlled by them and their successors, as a public park, for the recreation, health and benefit of the public, and free to all persons forever, subject to such necessary rules and regulations for the well ordering and government of the same, as the commissioners, or their successors, may adopt.
The fifth section, gives the commissioners power, if they and the owner of any of the lands cannot agree, to proceed to condemn them.
Provision is made by section seven, for the appointment of assessors to assess the benefits and damages.
The eighth section is as follows:
“For any deficiencies arising through acquiring title to said park, and for the payment of the expenses of enclosing, maintaining and improving the park herein provided for, and the expenses, disbursements and charges in the premises, the said commissioners shall have power to loan or borrow, from time to time, for such time as they shall deem expedient, a sum of money not exceeding two millions of dollars, and shall have authority to issue bonds, secured upon the said park and improvements, which bonds shall issue under the seal of said commissioners, and shall be signed by said commissioners, and countersigned by the secretary of said board, and bear interest not exceeding seven per cent. per annum; and it shall be the duty of said commissioners to keep an accurate register of all bonds issued by them, showing the number, date and amount of each bond, and to whom the same was issued, and said register shall at all times be open to the investigation of the public; and for the payment of the principal and interest of said bonds, the said park and improvements shall be irrevocably pledged, and the towns of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake shall be irrevocably bound; and said bonds may be sold by said commissioners, upon such terms and for such prices as in the judgment of said commissioners, can be obtained for the same in cash.”
Section nine provides as follows:
Section 13 is as follows:
“The said board shall have the full and exclusive power to govern, manage and direct said park; to lay out and regulate the same; to pass ordinances for the regulation and government thereof; to appoint such engineers, surveyors, clerks and other officers, including a police force, as may be necessary; to define and prescribe their respective duties and authority; fix the amount of their compensation; and, generally, in regard to said park, they shall possess all the power and authority now by law conferred upon, or possessed by, the common council of the city of Chicago, in respect to the public squares and places in said city; and it shall be lawful for them to commence the improvement of said park as soon as they have obtained one hundred acres of the premises herein described.”
Section 18 provides for an election to be held in these towns on the fourth Tuesday of March next after the passage of the act, at which election the legal voters were required to vote for or against the act, the tickets to be printed “For Park” and “Against Park,” and if a majority of the votes cast be “for Park,” then the act is to take effect and be in force, and not otherwise. Ample provision is made for holding the polls and for canvassing the votes as for the election of State and county officers, and the clerk of the county court, was required, immediately after the canvass, to cause a certificate of the result to be filed in the office of the secretary of State.
The nineteenth section makes the act a public act, and to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
By an amendatory and supplemental act, approved April 16, 1869, it was provided among other things by section 2, that
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