Watts v. Dep't of Pub. Works

• Decision Date: 24 February 1928
• Docket Number: No. 18477.,18477.
• Citation: 328 Ill. 587,160 N.E. 201
• Parties: WATTS v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND BUILDINGS et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

328 Ill. 587

160 N.E. 201

WATTS

v.DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND BUILDINGS et al.

No. 18477.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 24, 1928.

Bill for an injunction by Harry W. Watts, as a taxpayer, against the Department of Public Works and Buildings and others. Bill dismissed, and plaintiff appeals, and defendants assign cross-errors.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.

Appeal from Circuit Court, La Salle County; Joe A. Davis, Judge.

Woodward, Hibbs & Pool, of Ottawa, for appellant.

Oscar E. Carlstrom, Atty. Gen., and S. S. Du Hamel, of Springfield (Lee O'Neil Browne, and A. J. O'Conor, both of Ottawa, of counsel), for appellees.

STONE, J.

Appellant filed a bill in the circuit court of La Salle county against the department of public works and buildings and certain officers thereof, the state auditor, the state treasurer, and the Harrison Engineering & Construction Corporation, seeking an injunction to restrain the department of public works and buildings from laying out, locating, and improving a part of the state-wide system of highways known in this record as line A of route 23 of such system. The ground upon which the bill is based is that to construct line A would be a departure from the route for which the bonds were voted, and the department of public works and buildings has no jurisdiction to make such change. The cause was heard on bill, supplemental bill, and answers, and evidence taken in open court. The chancellor dismissed the bill for want of equity, and the cause comes here for review.

Appellant filed the bill as a taxpayer of La Salle county, stating therein that the bill was filed on his own behalf and on behalf of other taxpayers of the state. It set out that under the Bond Issue Acts known as the Sixty and the One Hundred Million Dollar Road Bond Issue Acts (Laws 1917, p. 696; Laws 1923, p. 512), route 23 is described as follows:

‘Beginning in a public highway at the Wisconsin state line, north of Harvard and running along such highway in a general southerly and southwesterly direction to Streator, affording Harvard, Marengo, Sycamore, De Kalb, Ottawa, Streator and the intervening communities reasonable connections with each other.’

It is averred that route 23 has been completed from the Wisconsin state line to the southern boundary of De Kalb county, which is also the north boundary of La Salle county, and that it has also been completed from Streator to the courthouse in Ottawa, in La Salle county. The dispute arises over the location of the road between Ottawa and the north boundary of the county. The bill avers that the department of public works and buildings has surveyed and laid out two lines for route 23 from the courthouse at Ottawa to the northern boundary of the county. One, known in this case as line A, or the Terra Cotta road, extends from the courthouse in Ottawa north on La Salle street ten blocks to Norris street, thence west on route 7 to the northwestern limits of the city of Ottawa, a distance of approximately 1.38 miles. Route 7 is already paved. From this point on route 7 the line proceeds north and northwesterly to a junction with route 18 at a point on the southeasterly side of the right of way of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Company, approximately one mile east of the city of Earlville. The complete distance covered by line A is approximately 17.196 miles. The bill avers that it is the plan of the department to follow route 18 as the same has been laid out by the department along the southeasterly side of said railway right of way to the village of Leland, at which point route 23 proceeds north and east to the southern boundary line of De Kalb county. The bill also avers that the other line surveyed and laid out is known as line B, or Plank road, or Ruger road. This line extends north from the courthouse in Ottawa on La Salle street ten blocks to Norris street, thence east one block to Columbus street, thence north to the northerly limits of the city of Ottawa, thence north, with a jog of one mile east, to the junction of route 18 as now laid out by the department, at a point one mile west of the western limits of the village of Leland, a distance of 18.357 miles. Between the village of Leland and the north boundary of La Salle county the two lines are the same. There is no evidence of advantage in topography in either route. In order that there be an understanding of the location of route 23 and lines A and B, it is necessary to insert a plat of the northern portion of La Salle county:

Image 1 (2.49" X 2.97") Available for Offline Print

Route 23 enters La Salle county from De Kalb at a point two miles east and a mile north of the east boundary of the village of Leland. Lines A and B are indicated on the accompanying plat by broken lines, and marked ‘line A’ and ‘line B.’

The bill avers that the department of public works and buildings advertised for the construction of a paved roadway over both line A and line B, each bidder being required to submit a proposal upon both lines. The contractors bidding were notified that the contract would be let for line A, unless it was determined in a legal proceeding that the improvement on line A was unauthorized, in which case the road should be constructed on Line B. The bill also avers that appellee the Harrison Engineering & Construction Corporation was the lowest bidder; its bid for line A being $371,531.52, and for line B being $380,996.09, and that the contract was accordingly awarded to it for the construction of the road on line A.

It is alleged in the bill that the department of public works and buildings is without warrant or authority of law to survey, lay out, and locate route 23 between the courthouse in Ottawa and the village of Leland along line A, or to advertise for bids or let a contract for construction of a road upon line A; that line A does not traverse any intervening community between the city of De Kalb and the city of Ottawa, but lies west of any intervening community between such cities. The bill avers that a straight line from De Kalb to Ottawa would pass east of Leland one mile or more; that he road of public travel between De Kalb and Ottawa now is, and for more than 50 years has been, substantially along a straight line; that the hard road as constructed from De Kalb to the south boundary of De Kalb county extends in substantially a strainght line. It is alleged that line A traverses a sparsely settled territory of entirely rural population; that the connection afforded by it by way of Earlville does not a straight line. It is alleged that line A De Kalb and Ottawa, but is situated approximately 1 1/2 miles south and 5 1/2 miles west of Leland, and is 16 miles north and 3 miles west of the courthouse in Ottawa; that in traveling from De Kalb to Ottawa or from Leland to Ottawa over Line A it would be necessary to travel in a southwesterly direction from the village of Leland to a point approximately one mile east of Earlville, and thence south, southeasterly, and east to the city of Ottawa; that such a route is neither practicable nor economical, and does not afford the residents and citizens constituting the communicies of Leland and those north thereof to the Wisconsin state line reasonable connection with Ottawa or Streator, or the residents and citizens of the two last named cities with points north to the Wisconsin state line, but that the traveling public will be required, in the use of line A, to travel approximately 4 miles further by this route than by traveling over line B, and that such additional mileage will entail great added expense and inconvenience to the traveling public. It is also averred that the Bond Issue Acts require that route 23 be over, along, and upon an established highway usually, customarily, and ordinarily traveled between its northern and southern termini, and that to locate the road over any other than such established highway is a wholly different route from that described in the Bond Issue Acts, and is illegal, unwarranted, and unauthorized, and the department of public works and buildings is without power, jurisdiction, or authority to so deviate from a highway established and used at the time of the adoption of the road acts, except in minor particulars expressly permitted in the acts; that line B between Ottawa and Leland is one of the public highways described in the Bond Issue Acts, and constitutes the leading, practicable, straightest, shortest, and most direct route between Ottawa and the intervening communities between Ottawa and Laland, and the most direct,convenient, and practical communication with points north of La Salle county to the Wisconsin state line. It is then averred, and not denied, that Leland is an unincorporated village, with a population of approximately 500, situated about 2 1/2 miles west of route 23 leading south from De Kalb to the La Salle county line; that there is an incorporated community known as Baker located on the east side of the Plank road, or line B; that an unincorporate community known as Harding is approximately 1 1/2 miles west of the Plank road; that Serena is an unincorporated community located about 4 miles east of the Plank road, with a good gravel road connecting it therewith; that Wedron, also an unincorporated community, is situated about 3 miles east of said road; that Dayton, also an unincorporated community, is situated about 2 1/2 miles east of the Plank road; that the citizens of these various communities travel to and from the county seat, and part of them meet socially and transact business in the village of Leland; that at no time do the citizens of any of these communities ever use the Terra Cotta road, or line A, for travel or communication to and from Ottawa or Leland, but that said road does not give to these named communities, or any of them, reasonable connection with the city of Ottawa, and does not afford De Kalb and other communities north of La Salle county...