Sipple v. University of Ill.

• Decision Date: 21 January 1955
• Docket Number: No. 33278,33278
• Citation: 123 N.E.2d 722,4 Ill.2d 593
• Parties: C. B. SIPPLE et al., Appellants, v. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS et al., Appellees.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 722

123 N.E.2d 722

4 Ill.2d 593

C. B. SIPPLE et al., Appellants, v. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS et al., Appellees.

No. 33278.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Jan. 21, 1955.

Morris K. Levinson, Chicago, for appellants.

Latham Castle, Atty. Gen., Ralph F. Lesemann, Urbana, Chapman & Cutler and Herbert R. Stoffels, Chicago, for appellees.

SCHAEFER, Justice.

The question here is the validity of section 4(b) of the Public Accounting Act of 1943, as amended in 1951, Laws of 1951, p. 533; Ill.Rev.Stat.1953, chap. 110 1/2, par. 28, and a word as to the history of legislation relating to accountants is necessary to an understanding of the case.

In 1903 the General Assembly provided that no person should designate himself a 'Certified Public Accountant' unless he met prescribed qualifications and had passed an examination given under the supervision of the University of Illinois. Laws of 1903, p. 281. In 1927 an act was passed providing for the certification of another category of accountants known as 'public accountants.' Certificates as public accountants were issued automatically to those who were certified public accountants under the 1903 act, and to others upon passing an examination conducted by the Department of Registration and Education. The 1927 act also contained a 'grandfather' clause providing that those who had been engaged in the practice of public accounting as defined in the statute, for a period of one year, would automatically receive certificates as public accountants. Laws of 1927, pp. 689, 691; Smith-Hurd's Ill.Rev.Stat.1927, chap. 110 1/2, par. 16.

The act of 1943 repealed the two earlier acts. It provides for the certification and regulation of certified public accountants, prescribes educational and other qualifications for applicants for certificates and provides for their examination under the supervision of the University of Illinois. It provides that certificates as certified public accountants issued under the 1903 act should remain valid, and that those who had obtained certificates as public accountants by passing an examination under the act of 1927 could style themselves as certified public accountants upon applying for such certificates. The effect was to give those who had obtained certificates as public accountants under the grandfather clause of the 1927 act, without taking any examination, the option of becoming certified public accountants by passing an examination, or of continuing to practice under the designation of public accountants rather than certified public accountants.

The validity of the 1943 act was generally sustained against constitutional attack by some of the present plaintiffs in Chatkin v. University of Illinois, 411 Ill. 105, 103 N.E.2d 498. In that case section 4(b) of the 1943 act had been held invalid by the trial court on the ground that it failed to specify in sufficient detail the scope and subject matter of the examinations which the act authorized. The question of the validity of that section was not reached by this court, because the cross appeal which presented that issue was dismissed when the 1951 amendment to section 4(b) which is here in controversy was adopted while the case was pending on appeal.

The 1951 amendment provided that those persons, among others, should be entitled to certificates as certified public accountants 'whom the University under regulations provided by its rules shall determine to have heretofore or hereafter successfully passed an examination, conducted under the supervision of the University, in accounting theory and practice, auditing and commercial law * * *.'

Seven of the eight present plaintiffs received certificates as public accountants under the grandfather clause of the 1927 act without having passed any examination. Some of them had never attempted to take an examination; others had failed to pass. Their complaint alleged that the defendants, who are the University of Illinois and certain officials connected with the administration of the statute, were issuing certificates as certified public accountants to all persons who had passed examinations under the original section 4(b) which was held invalid by the trial court in the Chatkin case, upon the theory that such persons had 'heretofore * * * successfully passed an examination, conducted under the supervision of the University,' although such prior examinations had been given without the safeguards expressed in the amended section 4(b). The relief sought was a decree declaring the amended section unconstitutional, declaring void any certificates issued to persons who had 'heretofore' passed an examination, and enjoining the future enforcement of the amended section.

Defendants' answer alleged that since the effective date of the amendatory act of 1951, a total of 124 new certificates as certified public accountants had been issued to persons who held certificates as public accountants under the act of 1927, and who, prior to July 31, 1951, had passed an examination conducted under the supervision of the University in accounting theory, practice, auditing and commercial law. Defendants denied that these new certificates were issued automatically to persons who had theretofore received certificates under the original section 4(b) of the act of 1943, and alleged that none of them was issued without the University having first...