Egidi v. Town of Libertyville

621 N.E.2d 615, 251 Ill. App. 3d 224, 190 Ill. Dec. 443
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 29, 1993
Docket2-92-1293
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 621 N.E.2d 615 (Egidi v. Town of Libertyville) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Egidi v. Town of Libertyville, 621 N.E.2d 615, 251 Ill. App. 3d 224, 190 Ill. Dec. 443 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE COLWELL

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is the third time this matter has come before us. Plaintiff, Mario R. Egidi, brought the action as a taxpayer’s suit against defendants, the Town of Libertyville (Libertyville or Township) and Bank of Highland Park (Bank), challenging the Township’s acquisition of land from the Bank. Egidi appeals from an order granting the Township’s motion for summary judgment. Specifically, Egidi challenges Libertyville’s claim to two connecting easements that, when combined with the acreage in fee simple acquired from the Bank, would give the Township the minimum 50 acres required for a land purchase under the Township Open Space Act (Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 139, par. 321 et seq. (now codified, as amended, at 60 ILCS 115/1 et seq. (West 1992))). We reverse.

The Bank filed memoranda supporting Libertyville’s motion for summary judgment but was not named in the lower court’s order granting that motion and submitted no brief as a defendant-appellee; accordingly, throughout this disposition, reference will be made to only one defendant, the Town of Libertyville.

The factual background of this dispute is set forth in detail in the earlier cases, Egidi v. Town of Libertyville (1989), 181 Ill. App. 3d 542 (Egidi I), and Egidi v. Town of Libertyville (1991), 218 Ill. App. 3d 596 (Egidi II). The facts will be discussed here to the extent necessary to resolve the issues and where the record has been augmented subsequent to the earlier cases.

Libertyville purchased the vacant land at issue pursuant to the Act. The Act authorizes the purchase of open land by a township, but in section 2(b) defines open land as “any space or area of land or water of an area of 50 acres or more, the preservation or the restriction of development or use of which would” preserve or foster various specified goals (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 139, par. 322(b) (now codified, as amended, at 60 ILCS 11572(b) (West 1992))).

The . property Libertyville purchased is bisected across its far southeast corner by a 270-foot-wide Commonwealth Edison right-of-way. Accordingly, the land purchased by Libertyville actually lies on either side of the right-of-way, and neither side contains 50 acres. At the time the earlier cases were decided, the total area of the property was considered to be 50.6771 acres, with approximately 49.5 acres to the north of the Commonwealth Edison property and approximately 1.25 acres to the south. A subsequent resurvey of the property placed the total acreage at 49.69.

In Egidi I, based on what appeared to be a total lack of connection between the two parcels, we agreed with plaintiff’s contention that Libertyville had purchased two separate areas of land from the Bank that did not adjoin or abut each other. We also considered it irrelevant that the two parcels might be considered contiguous for annexation purposes under certain provisions of the Illinois Municipal Code (see, e.g., Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 24, par. 7 — 1—1 (now codified, as amended, at 65 ILCS 5/7 — 1—1 (West 1992))), since we were considering the status of the parcels under the Township Open Space Act. We held in Egidi I that two regions of land completely separated by a 270-foot right-of-way that is owned by a different entity cannot be considered “an area of land.” (Emphasis added.) Egidi, 181 Ill. App. 3d at 545.

In Egidi II, the parties again disputed whether the land met the statutory acreage requirement. However, this time the Township contended in the trial court that when it purchased the property from the Bank it acquired not only the acreage in fee simple but also two easements over the Commonwealth Edison right-of-way.

The land comprising the right-of-way was originally conveyed by Egidi to Commonwealth Edison by deeds executed in 1955 and 1960. Both deeds reserved an easement across the right-of-way “for 2 private roadways 33 feet in width to be established in a Southeasterly and Northwesterly direction across the above described property at locations” which were to be agreed upon and which would not interfere with the grantee’s facilities, equipment, or use of the property. (See Egidi II, 218 Ill. App. 3d at 606-07.) The total area of the easements is approximately .40 acres.

Defendant argued that the combined fee and easement interests constituted a purchase of “open land” consistent with the Act. The lower court rejected Libertyville’s argument and found that the two parcels were separate areas of land that did not abut or adjoin each other and that the easements did not provide ownership or control over an area of at least 50 acres. Accordingly, the lower court granted Egidi’s motion for summary judgment.

The Township appealed. After determining that the complaint sufficiently asserted plaintiff’s taxpayer status and that plaintiff had standing, we addressed Libertyville’s contention that the trial court erred in finding that the acreage it acquired was not “open land” pursuant to the Act. Certain principles of review guided our inquiry then, as they do now.

Summary judgment is proper when there remain no genuine issues of fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. (Logan v. Old Enterprise Farms, Ltd. (1990), 139 Ill. 2d 229.) However, summary judgment is a drastic means of ending litigation and should be granted only when the right of the moving party is clear and free from doubt. Logan, 139 Ill. 2d at 233.

We found in Egidi II that factual questions as to the location and nature of the purported easements over the right-of-way precluded summary judgment. In particular, we were unable to determine from the record whether the easements apply only to the Township’s property or if they are meant to provide access points along a far longer section of the Commonwealth Edison right-of-way. Since Egidi asserted that his original parcel is held by multiple owners and the record does not reveal the respective easement rights of those owners, we could not determine whether defendant is entitled to both, one, or no easements. We concluded that we had no way of knowing whether the Township’s parcels are connected by an easement interest in the right-of-way.

Although we remanded for resolution of the relevant factual issues, we nevertheless proceeded to address the questions of law pertaining to interpretation of the Act that had been raised in the appeal. We reached several determinations, which, under the doctrine of the law of the case, are not open for reconsideration. P S L Realty Co. v. Granite Investment Co. (1981), 86 Ill. 2d 291, 312; Hamilton v. Williams (1992), 237 Ill. App. 3d 765, 773-74.

We first determined in Egidi II that it is not fatal to the Township’s acquisitions that Libertyville’s interest in part of the requisite area of land is in the form of easements. Section 4.02 of the Act authorizes townships to secure open land by acquiring “the fee or any lesser right or interest in real property that is open land *** and to hold the same *** for open space, scenic roadway, pathway, outdoor recreation, or other conservation benefits.” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 139, par.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
621 N.E.2d 615, 251 Ill. App. 3d 224, 190 Ill. Dec. 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/egidi-v-town-of-libertyville-illappct-1993.