Midwest Community Council, Inc. v. Chicago Park District

98 F.R.D. 491, 37 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 101, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20443
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 7, 1983
DocketNo. 79 C 3187
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 98 F.R.D. 491 (Midwest Community Council, Inc. v. Chicago Park District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Midwest Community Council, Inc. v. Chicago Park District, 98 F.R.D. 491, 37 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 101, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20443 (N.D. Ill. 1983).

Opinion

Memorandum

LEIGHTON, District Judge.

The issue presented is whether this court, on its own motion, should consolidate this case, No. 79 C 3187, for trial with another one on its docket, No. 79 C 2242. Briefs have been filed in which defendants express their agreement with consolidation but plaintiffs object to one joint trial for both cases. The following is a description of the parties, the matter involved, the claims, and a summary of the allegations.

I

A. This case, No. 79 C 3187.

This is a civil rights class action filed on August 2, 1979 by eight complainants. One of them, the lead plaintiff, is a not-for-profit, tax exempt Illinois corporation that was established in 1946. Its members, almost all Negroes, are in over 300 block clubs in the west side neighborhoods of Chicago inhabited largely by members of the Negro race. The purpose of the corporation is to mobilize, coordinate and develop community life and resources to combat social and civic problems in the East Garfield Park area of the city.

The other plaintiffs are individuals, all Negroes: two mothers of three minors, and two senior citizens, who live respectively, in the 24th, 27th, and 28th Wards in the city of Chicago. Two of the individual plaintiffs, a mother and her minor child, live in the area served by community parks located in the 24th Ward and by Douglas Park, a sectional facility. The other individual plaintiffs, a mother, her two minor children, and the two senior citizens, live in an area served by community parks located in the 27th and 28th Wards of the city of Chicago and by Garfield Park, also a sectional facility. All of the plaintiffs bring this action on their behalf and on behalf of all other residents of Chicago wards which are inhabited largely by Negro persons, specifically, [493]*493Wards 2, 3, 4, 6, 16, 17, 20, 24, and 27 “who are similarly situated and injured by the discriminatory conduct complained of herein.” A class, as urged by the plaintiffs, has been certified.

As the complaint now stands, amended and modified, there are seven defendants. One of them is the Chicago Park District, a ■ municipal corporation existing under the laws of Illinois and funded through tax levies, bond issues, and federal assistance. This defendant, through its commissioners, administers, under Illinois law, a system of public parks consisting of approximately 580 facilities ranging in sizes from playgrounds which may consist of less than a city block, to community and neighborhood parks, which may be more than a a block in size, to sectional parks which may consist of thousands of acres. The other six defendants are the general superintendent of the park district, the president of the board, and four other commissioners, all of them appointed by the mayor of the .city of Chicago.

The complaint is in two counts. Count I is brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 “for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief against the deprivation of rights, privileges, and immunities secured and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Plaintiffs allege therein, as to them and the class, that defendants, acting under color of state law, “have purposely discriminated against Black citizens on the basis of race in the allocation of recreational resources within the city of Chicago”; that the racial discrimination in the allocation of recreational resources by defendants has occurred continuously from 1970 to the present time; and that this may also have occurred before 1970. They claim that the racial discrimination in the allocation of recreational resources has taken numerous forms including, among other things, allocating substantially more money used in Chicago wards inhabited predominantly by Caucasians than in those wards populated largely by Negroes, even though each ward of the city contains approximately the same number of residents; “constructing and maintaining substantially more indoor and outdoor facilities in White wards than in Black wards [sic]”; refusing to repair and maintain indoor and outdoor facilities “located in Black wards in substantially the same condition as that of facilities located in White wards [sic]”; and in general discriminating against Negroes in. all respects concerning the administration of the parks.

Plaintiffs further say that they and members of the class have been injured by defendants’ illegal conduct; that their attempts to cause defendants to end their discriminatory conduct have failed; and that defendants have irreparably injured the plaintiffs and members of the class, and will continue to do so unless enjoined by this court. Plaintiffs state they have no adequate remedy at law; therefore they pray that this court enter a declaratory judgment that defendants’ conduct has been and continues to be unlawful and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment; that they be enjoined from continuing their unlawful conduct; that the court enter an order requiring defendants to present a plan to remedy the effects of their past and present unlawful conduct to include correcting all of the disparities and discriminations in the administration of the Chicago parks as alleged by plaintiffs in their complaint. Plaintiffs ask this court to grant them their costs, expenses, including attorney fees; and “that plaintiffs be granted such other or further relief as the court may deem to be just and proper.”

In Count II plaintiffs assert claims under 42 U.S.C. § 2000d (1974), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Plaintiffs allege that this count “is a proceeding for a permanent injunction to restrain defendants from continuing their policies and practices of allocating recreational resources within the Chicago Park District on a racially discriminatory basis.” They allege that the park district has received and continues to receive federal financial assistance as the sponsor of projects under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act (Public Law 88-578, as amended). Plaintiffs then reallege paragraphs of Count I as incorporated [494]

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Bluebook (online)
98 F.R.D. 491, 37 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 101, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/midwest-community-council-inc-v-chicago-park-district-ilnd-1983.