Potter v. School Directors of Dist. No. 87, McLean County

• Decision Date: 07 March 1974
• Docket Number: No. 87,No. 12121,M,87,12121
• Parties: Marciel POTTER et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SCHOOL DIRECTORS OF DISTRICT NO. 87, COUNTY OF McLEAN, State of Illinois, and/or Board of Education, School DistrictcLean County, Illinois, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 58

309 N.E.2d 58

17 Ill.App.3d 781

Marciel POTTER et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SCHOOL DIRECTORS OF DISTRICT NO. 87, COUNTY OF McLEAN, State

of Illinois, and/or Board of Education, School

District No. 87, McLean County,

Illinois, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 12121.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District.

March 7, 1974.

Fleming, Messman, Lapan & O'Connor, Bloomington, for plaintiffs-appellants; Roger D. Lapan, Bloomington, of counsel.

Pratt, Larkin & Williams, Bloomington, for defendants-appellees; John T. Pratt, H. Paxton Bowers, Bloomington, of counsel.

CRAVEN, Justice:

This is an appeal from an order of the circuit court of McLean County dissolving a temporary injunction and denying plaintiffs' complaint for a permanent injunction. The plaintiffs appeal.

Many issues are raised on appeal. However, we find that the plaintiffs do not have an interest in the subject matter cognizable in a suit for injunction. Such determination is decisive.

The plaintiffs are taxpaying residents of Bloomington School District No. 87 and parents of children who have heretofore attended the Raymond School attendance center. The defendant is the Board of Education School District No. 87 located in Bloomington, Illinois.

The plaintiffs originally sought to enjoin defendant from consolidating Raymond School attendance district and the Sheridan School attendance district--the effect of which was to compel the students living in the Raymond district to attend the Sheridan School. The Board of Education desired to consolidate the two districts in order that the Raymond School could be used by the Tri-County Special Education Association as an educational unit for the Trainable Mentally Handicapped.

Prior to April 26, 1972, the date the Board of Education voted to consolidate the attendance districts, several public meetings were held at which the aforementioned proposal was discussed. At these meetings, the parents of children attending both the Raymond and Sheridan schools voiced their opposition to the proposal. The objectors cited various reasons for their opposition. These reasons ranged from the fact that their children would have to be bused to school to the fear that the property value of their homes would be reduced because of their close proximity to an institution devoted to the Trainable Mentally Handicapped students. Part of the Raymond School was officially leased to the Tri-County Special Education Association on or about July 1, 1972.

On August 4, 1972, the plaintiffs filed a complaint praying for permanent injunction and a temporary injunction preventing the merger of the two attendance districts. The circuit court of McLean County on August 14, 1972 ordered that a temporary injunction precluding the merger should issue. The hearing on the motion for a permanent injunction was on August 29, 1972. At the conclusion of the hearing, the...