Slaughter v. Thornton
| Decision Date | 20 November 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 60237,60237 |
| Citation | 34 Ill.App.3d 422,339 N.E.2d 776 |
| Parties | Dr. Donald SLAUGHTER, President, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Dr. Joseph THORNTON and Dr. Mohammed Efthaiha, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Winston & Strawn, Chicago, for defendants-appellants; Gary L. Lennard, Chicago, of counsel.
Davis, Miner & Barnhill, Chicago, for plaintiffs-appellees; Charles J. Barnhill, Jr., Chicago, of counsel.
Defendants Dr. Joseph Thornton and Dr. Mohammed Efthaiha appeal from a final order entered by the trial court following a hearing, which Inter alia restrained them from acting or purporting to act as officers of plaintiff Residents and Internes Association of the Cook County Hospital, and also from interfering with plaintiffs Dr. Donald Slaughter, Dr. Gustavo Espinosa, Dr. Curtiss Durand and Dr. Chris Hinson in their capacities as the newly-elected officers of the Association. The order was entered on January 24, 1974, and the defendants filed a notice of appeal. In this court plaintiffs filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the basis of mootness, which motion was taken with the case. As we have concluded that the mootness question is dispositive of the appeal, only those facts which are pertinent to that question are presented.
The individual plaintiffs were elected as officers of the Association after an amendment to the election provisions of its constitution was adopted to provide for the direct election of officers by the membership. Defendants, who were officers of the Association prior to that election, refused to recognize the individual plaintiffs as their successors in office. Plaintiffs then filed a complaint for injunctive relief and defendants filed an answer. Upon hearing by the trial court, the order appealed from was entered. After reciting 'The Court Hereby Finds, Orders, Adjudges, Decrees and Declares,' the order in substance provided that the Executive Committee validly passed a resolution authorizing a referendum to determine whether officers should be elected by direct election of the membership; that the members of the Association voted in favor of the direct election; that the actions constituted a valid amendment to the Constitution and By-Laws; that in accordance with the amendment, plaintiffs were duly elected officers; that defendants are enjoined from acting or purporting to act as officers of the Association; and that said order is final and appealable.
Defendants instituted this appeal, contending that the amendment of the election provisions was not validly effected in accordance with the amendment procedures established in the Association's Constitution, thus rendering the subsequent direct election of the individual plaintiffs void.
On April 24, 1975, plaintiffs filed a motion in this court to dismiss defendants' appeal on the ground that the case had become moot. Accompanying the motion was an affidavit of Dr. Donald Slaughter which averred that defendants had withdrawn as members of the Association in February 1974, and that as a result of actions by the administration of Cook County Hospital, the Association had effectively ceased to exist and was presently without membership. Defendants filed a response which admitted that the Association had ceased to exist and did not deny that the defendants had previously withdrawn from its membership. However, defendants argued that the case was not moot because the individual plaintiffs had instituted a federal suit for damages arising out of alleged violations of their rights, which were derived in part from their positions as officers of the Association. Defendants concluded their response with a request that the case not be dismissed as moot unless plaintiffs represented to this court that the issue of their status as officers of the...
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...548 (3d ed. 1940)), they may be proved by extrinsic evidence, including a motion supported by affidavit. Slaughter v. Thornton (1st Dist. 1975), 34 Ill.App.3d 422, 424, 339 N.E.2d 776; Buckingham Corp. v. Vesolowski (1st Dist. 1974), 17 Ill.App.3d 58, 61, 307 N.E.2d 703; La Salle National B......
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...Thus, because the existence of an actual controversy is an essential requisite to appellate jurisdiction (Slaughter v. Thornton (1975), 34 Ill.App.3d 422, 339 N.E.2d 776; Buckingham Corp. v. Vesolowski (1974), 17 Ill.App.3d 58, 307 N.E.2d 703), and since none has been presented here, we hav......
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...is now precluded from having the merits of his claim reviewed. On this point I feel that the following language from Slaughter v. Thornton, 34 Ill.App.3d 422, 339 N.E.2d 776, is 'Although the specific controversy which gave rise to this proceeding is no longer subject to appellate review, i......
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