Robinette v. Chicago Land Clearance Commission

• Decision Date: 26 June 1951
• Docket Number: No. 50 C 68.,50 C 68.
• Parties: ROBINETTE et al. v. CHICAGO LAND CLEARANCE COMMISSION et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

115 F. Supp. 669

ROBINETTE et al. v. CHICAGO LAND CLEARANCE COMMISSION et al.

No. 50 C 68.

United States District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

June 26, 1951.

Heber T. Dotson, Chicago, for plaintiffs.

Ivan A. Elliot, Atty. Gen. of Ill., and Wilson & McIlvaine, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

This action involves a large slum clearance project on Chicago's south side, along Cottage Grove Avenue between 31st and 35th Streets, known as Redevelopment Project No. 1. The defendants in the action are: (1) The Chicago Land Clearance Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "Commission"), a municipal corporation organized pursuant to the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act of 1947, ch. 67½, Ill.Rev.St. 1953, § 63 et seq.; (2) The Illinois State Housing Board (hereinafter referred to as the "Board"), an administrative agency of the State of Illinois created by ch. 32, Ill.Rev.St.1931, § 5, and carrying out certain powers under the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act; (3) The New York Life Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to as "New York Life"), a mutual life insurance company organized and existing pursuant to the insurance laws of the State of New York.

Plaintiffs' amended complaint consists of two counts: Count I seeks to have the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act declared unconstitutional and its enforcement by defendants enjoined; Count II seeks damages under the Civil Rights Act, 8 U.S.C.A. §§ 41, 43 and 47(3). The Board and the Commission answered both counts. New York Life answered Count I and moved to dismiss Count II. Subsequently, the Commission moved for judgment of dismissal of both counts on the pleadings, and New York Life moved for judgment of dismissal of Count I on the pleadings, which motions are now before the Court for disposition on the briefs of the parties.

Specifically, Count I alleges that plaintiffs are owners of land lying within a certain area which the Commission, with the approval of the Board and the City of Chicago, found to be a "slum or blighted area" and designated for redevelopment; that the property owned by plaintiffs possesses great value; that defendants threaten to condemn said land and demolish plaintiffs' homes; that the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act, pursuant to which the defendants have done and are doing the acts complained of, violates the Fifth, Seventh and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and Article II, §§ 2 and 13, Article III and Article IV, §§ 20 and 22 of the Illinois Constitution, S.H.A.; that, further, defendants threaten to convey the land taken through condemnation to New York Life for the construction of a private project pursuant to a contract entered into between the Commission and New York Life; that, in furtherance of their scheme to take plaintiffs' property, defendants have taken steps to acquire such property through the exercise of the power of eminent domain or voluntary conveyance, which steps have included sending form letters to certain plaintiffs and others asking that representatives of the Commission be permitted to inspect their property for the purpose of evaluating it, and other form letters to other plaintiffs and other persons offering given amounts for certain parcels of the property; that plaintiffs have resisted the attempt to acquire their property; that defendants, in the name of the Commission, have filed a condemnation suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County whereby they seek to condemn and acquire the subject property; that the Commission proposes to acquire the property and resell it to New York Life at a $9,000,000 loss; that plaintiffs' remedies at law are inadequate; that, unless this Court grants injunctive relief, plaintiffs will suffer irreparable injury in the form of multiplicity of suits, depreciation of the value of their property, interference with the enjoyment of their property, and the lowering of plaintiffs' "moral standard".

Count II of the amended complaint is based on the theory that the activities of the Board and the Commission and the signing of a certain contract of redevelopment by the Commission and New York Life, were carried on under color of a state statute (the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act) which is invalid under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

At the outset it is necessary to determine whether a one-judge court has the authority to dispose of the pending motions. Ordinarily, where a plaintiff seeks to enjoin the enforcement of a state statute as being violative of the Federal Constitution, the judge to whom the case is assigned must convene a three-judge court even for the purpose of dismissing the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, the theory being that this constitutes a disposition of the case on the merits. However, this rule is subject to the exception that, where, as here, jurisdiction is founded solely upon the alleged presence of a federal question, the suit may be dismissed without convening a three-judge court, if it is made to appear that the federal question claims are insubstantial, either because they are obviously without merit or because they have been disposed of adversely to plaintiffs by previous decisions of the Supreme Court.

"The District Judge recognized the rule that if the court was warranted in taking jurisdiction and the case fell within section 266 of the Judicial Code, a single judge was not authorized to dismiss the complaint on the merits, whatever his opinion of the merits might be. Ex parte Northern Pacific Ry. Co., 280 U.S. 142, 144, 50 S.Ct. 70, 74 L.Ed. 233; Stratton v. St. Louis S. W. Ry. Co., 282 U.S. 10, 15, 51 S.Ct. 8, 75 L.Ed. 135. But the provision requiring the presence of a court of three judges necessarily assumes that the District Court has jurisdiction. In the absence of diversity of citizenship, it is essential to jurisdiction that a substantial federal question should be presented. `A substantial claim of unconstitutionality is necessary for the application of section 266.' Ex parte Buder, 271 U.S. 461, 467, 46 S.Ct. 557, 559, 70 L.Ed. 1036; Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Garrett, 231 U. S. 298, 304, 34 S.Ct. 48, 58 L.Ed. 229. That provision does not require three judges to pass upon this initial question of jurisdiction.

"The existence of a substantial question of constitutionality must be determined by the allegations of the bill of complaint. Mosher v. City of Phoenix, 287 U.S. 29, 30, 53 S.Ct. 67, 77 L.Ed. 148; Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 289 U.S. 103, 105, 53 S.Ct. 549, 550, 77 L.Ed. 1062. The question may be plainly unsubstantial, either because it is `obviously without merit' or because `its unsoundness so clearly results from the previous decisions of this court as to foreclose the subject and leave no room for the inference that the question sought to be raised can be the subject of controversy.' Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, supra; Hannis Distilling Co. v. City of Baltimore, 216 U.S. 285, 288, 30 S.Ct. 326, 54 L.Ed. 482; McGilvra v. Ross, 215 U.S. 70, 80, 30 S.Ct. 27, 54 L.Ed. 95." Ex parte Poresky, 290 U.S. 30, 54 S.Ct. 3, 4, 78 L.Ed. 152.

The Court, as it will demonstrate in the succeeding paragraphs, is of the opinion that the instant action falls within the purview of the rule laid down in the Poresky case.

In brief, plaintiffs contend that the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act is violative of the Federal Constitution in the following particulars: (1) The Act authorizes the Commission and the Board to determine that the area in which plaintiffs' property is situated is a slum and should be redeveloped, without affording notice to plaintiffs, or an opportunity to be heard, or judicial review of the determinations, all in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) The Act is not uniform in its applicability to property of the same class, but rather depends...