The People v. Chi. Transit Authority

64 N.E.2d 4, 392 Ill. 77, 1945 Ill. LEXIS 412
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1945
DocketNo. 29183. Judgment and order affirmed.
StatusPublished
Cited by73 cases

This text of 64 N.E.2d 4 (The People v. Chi. Transit Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The People v. Chi. Transit Authority, 64 N.E.2d 4, 392 Ill. 77, 1945 Ill. LEXIS 412 (Ill. 1945).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Stone

delivered the opinion of the court:

The questions arising in this case involve the validity of an act entitled: “An Act to create a municipal corporation for public ownership and operation of a transportation system in the metropolitan area of Cook County,” to be known as the “Metropolitan Transit Authority Act.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1945, chap. 1112/3, pars. 301 et seq.) The corporation created by this act will be hereinafter referred to as the Authority. The cause comes here on an appeal from an order and judgment of the circuit court of Cook county sustaining motions to strike an information in quo warranto brought by the State’s Attorney of Cook county, and an information in chancery for injunction brought by the State’s Attorney to enjoin expenditure of funds. This act was passed by the Sixty-fourth General Assembly and was approved by the Governor April 12, 1945, with an emergency clause. There was also passed by the same General Assembly an act to amend certain sections of article 23 of the Revised Cities and Villages Act, under which amendment the city council of the city of Chicago passed an ordinance authorizing and granting to the Authority exclusive right to acquire, construct, maintain and operate facilities for local transportation within the city of Chicago for the term of fifty years, and thereafter until terminated, and granting the use of the streets, city-owned subways, and public places therefor. The Chicago Park District Act and other acts relating to this matter, but unnecessary to discuss here, were also amended.

The Transit Authority Act requires that, before the Authority can assume any of the power granted it, the adoption of the act be submitted to a vote of the people. Under the act and the city ordinance so providing, the question of the adoption of the act was submitted to a vote of the people on June 4, 1945, the date of the judicial election, and the act was adopted. Thereafter the appointments of members of the Chicago Transit Board, the governing body, were made by the Governor and by the mayor of Chicago, in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Transit Authority Act.

Objections concerning the validity of the act are hereinafter set out and referred to. It is also objected that the act fails to express facts sufficient to constitute an emergency, as required by section 13 of article IV of the constitution, and so was not in effect on the date of its approval by the Governor nor at the time of its adoption by a vote of the people. The ordinance was also objected to for reasons hereinafter referred to.

The Transit Authority Act, consisting of forty-five sections, púrports to establish a municipal corporation and to vest in it powers, as such, to own, operate and maintain a transit system in the metropolitan area of Cook county. By section 3 all the territory in Cook county lying east of the east line of range 11, east of the third principal meridian, is constituted a political subdivision, body politic and municipal corporation. This embraces the thickly populated area in Cook county and includes 85 cities and villages other than the city of Chicago. The Authority may construct, own and operate for public service, a transportation system; may acquire by lease, purchase or condemnation existing transportation lines, and may enter into contracts for joint use of utility property for transportation purposes. It is given the power of eminent domain and may sue and be sued. It is given the right to use any street or road within the area for interurban transportation of passengers though it may not engage in local transportation of passengers within any municipality 'unless authorized by an ordinance of that municipality, which has been approved by a popular vote. It may borrow money, issue bonds or certificates commonly known as revenue bonds, which are payable solely from the revenues of the system, and it is declared in the act that in no event shall they constitute a lien on the property of the Authority or constitute a debt of the Authority, the State, county, or any city or other municipality. The Authority is given no power to levy taxes for any purpose. The act provides for a civil service sj^stem and provides that the employees of any public utility acquired by the Authority shall be transferred to the Authority and retain their positions. The Transit Authority Board is empowered to make rules and regulations to further the purposes of its existence, and fix fares and charges as prescribed in section 30 of the act. It can act only by ordinance or resolution adopted by a majority vote of the board. The act makes it the duty of the board to rehabilitate, reconstruct and modernize the transit systems acquired by it and adapt them to the use and needs of the municipality served. The act provides and regulates actions for personal injuries, requiring that notice of such actions be the same as that required in cases of suits against cities.

Chief among the questions presented, — the answer to which provides the solution of numerous other questions raised on this record, — is whether the act creates a municipal corporation. Counsel for appellant contends that a municipal corporation has not been created and therefore it is not entitled to exercise the rights, privileges, functions and authority, and to enjoy the exemptions of a municipal corporation; that its primary purpose is to engage in business and not to discharge a public function; that there is provided merely a transitory and territorial subdivision of-the State, not strictly a corporation but at most a quasi corporation, since it was created not voluntarily by a vote of the people but by the act of the General Assembly. It is claimed that it has no power of local self-government but only the power to operate and maintain the property and facilities for transit business. It is not contended, as we understand counsel for the People, that the General Assembly may not create public and private corporations of such description as it chooses, but the contention is that in this case the General Assembly has not created a public municipal corporation, and that calling it such does not make it one; that public municipal corporations are formed to exercise some delegated power of government of the State but that the Authority has no such delegated power; that its functions are entirely proprietary, and, conceding that municipalities may go into the public utility business, such as selling water, electricity, gas, and the like, the test here is whether governmental functions have been vested in this corporation. They contend that the Authority is no. more a public municipal corporation than a railroad which operates a business impressed with public interest; that since' the Authority has no other function, it cannot be said to be a municipal corporation.

Counsel cite the cases of City of Chicago v. Ames, 365 Ill. 529, Wagner v. City of Rock Island, 146 Ill. 139, People ex rel. Mortell v. Bergman, 253 Ill. 469, and other cases, as drawing the distinction between public and private corporations, and between municipal and quasi municipal corporations. They argue that the Authority has no municipal powers, does not govern, was not created for that purpose, and has no political rights, and they point out as evidence of that fact the provision of the statute that the Authority has no power to levy taxes. They say that it is given no police powers, and, being an involuntary corporation, was not created with the view to engage in commerce.

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Bluebook (online)
64 N.E.2d 4, 392 Ill. 77, 1945 Ill. LEXIS 412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-people-v-chi-transit-authority-ill-1945.