Village of Des Plaines v. Poyer

• Decision Date: 19 January 1888
• Citation: 14 N.E. 677,123 Ill. 348
• Parties: VILLAGE OF DES PLAINES v. POYER.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

123 Ill. 348

14 N.E. 677

VILLAGE OF DES PLAINES

v.POYER.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

January 19, 1888.

Appeal from appellate court, First district.

Benjamin Poyer was the owner of a tract of land located within the corporate limits of the village of Des Plaines, about half a mile from the inhabited part of the village, and separated from it by the Des Plaines river. This land Poyer rented, and used for picnic purposes. On May 10, 1883, the village trustees passed an ordinance declaring picnics and open-air dances within the limits of the village a nuisance, and also making it a nuisance for any person to rent, use, or allow to be used any ground within the limits of the village for such purposes. In July, 1884, the village commenced a suit against Poyer, before a justice of the peace in Des Plaines, for a violation of this ordinance, committed on July 31, 1883. Poyer was fined $100 and costs by the justice, and took an appeal to the criminal court of Cook county. Upon a trial in the criminal court, before a jury, he was again found guilty, and the jury assessed the fine at $50. Upon this verdict the court entered judgment, and Poyer appealed to the appellate court, where the judgment of the criminal court was reversed, and the cause remanded. Upon a new trial in the criminal court, the defendant was found not guilty. Upon the appeal of the village to the appellate court, that tribunal affirmed its former decision and that of the criminal court at the second trial. From this judgment the village of Des Plaines now appeals.Stiles & Lewis

and C. S. Cutting, for appellant.

John Gibbons, for appellee.

SCHOLFIELD, J.

The only question involved in the present case is the validity of the following ordinance:

‘Section 1. That all public picnics and open-air dances within the limits of said village are hereby declared to be nuisances.

‘Sec. 2. That for any person or persons to rent, use, or allow to be used, any yard, ground, grove, or other real estate, within the corporate limits of the village of Des Plaines, for public picnic purposes, or for open-air dances, or to permit, or in any way allow, the use of such property for any purpose by which disorderly persons are gathered in or about said village of Des Plaines, shall constitute, and is hereby declared to be, a nuisance. Any person creating or permitting any nuisance mentioned and declared in this ordinance to exist, having the right or power to abate the same, shall be subject to a fine of not less than fifty dollars, and not exceeding one hundred dollars, in every case; and each renting, using, or allowing to be used, of any such premises for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, shall be deemed the creating of a new nuisance and the author thereof be subject to a like fine.’

The village is incorporated under the general law in relation to the incorporation of villages, and is, by that...