Village of Itasca v. Schroeder

55 N.E. 50, 182 Ill. 192
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 19, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 55 N.E. 50 (Village of Itasca v. Schroeder) 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
Village of Itasca v. Schroeder, 55 N.E. 50, 182 Ill. 192 (Ill. 1899).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Craig

delivered the opinion of the court:

It is first contended by appellant that the trial court erred in taking jurisdiction of the case,—that appellee had an adequate remedy at law. It is argued by appellant that equity will not enjoin a threatened trespass, and the case of Goodell v. Lassen, 69 Ill. 145, is cited in support of this doctrine. What was said in that case is still the doctrine held by this court, that “before a court of equity would lend its aid to enjoin a mere trespass, the facts and circumstances must be alleged in the bill, from which it may be seen that irreparable mischief will be the result of the act complained of, and that the law can afford the party no adequate remedy.—Livingston v. Livingston, 6 Johns. Ch. 497.” The facts set out in the bill in the case at bar come clearly within the rule laid down by this court in that case. The allegation in substance is, that certain trustees of the village of Itasca, and certain persons named as defendants, are changing" the road-bed of Main street, and are about to enter upon complainant’s property, and will remove his fences, plow up his field and cut his standing trees and permanently damage complainant’s said lands; that certain members of the village of Itasca have made threats that they will remove or cause the removal of the fence constituting" the easterly line of the said property; that he planted a row of trees, forty or more in number, along the line of his property on the east, and which have since grown up to large and magnificent trees, beautifying and greatly adding" to the value of his property, and that if the proposed change of the street as contemplated and now in progress of being carried out is made, said trees will have to be cut down and removed, causing large and irreparable injury to complainant. In City of Joliet v. Werner, 166 Ill. 34, we said, quoting from High on Injunctions (p. 41): “‘When a municipal corporation threatens to remove plaintiff’s fences as an alleged encroachment upon a street, plaintiff having for thirty years been in the undisturbed possession of the premises, the city having used no portion thereof for a street, and offering no compensation to the plaintiff, and no means of adjusting his compensation for the property to be taken, an appropriate case is presented for relief by injunction.’ (High on Injunctions, sec. 584.) A city may be restrained from encroaching upon the property of a private citizen, even under the pretense of preventing the obstruction of a street.—High on Injunctions, secs. 349, 1247, 1272, 1274; Carter v. City of Chicago, 57 Ill.283; City of Peoria v. Johnston, 56 id. 45.” See, also, City of Mt. Carmel v. McClintock, 155 Ill. 608, and Comrs. of Highways v. Green, 156 id. 504. These cases fully sustain the action of the trial court in issuing an injunction to prevent what the facts and circumstances set out in the bill show would be an irreparable injury.

Second—Error is assigned that the injunction was improperly issued without notice, because the oath to the bill does not state how the rights of complainant will be prejudiced if the injunction is not issued immediately without notice. The statute provides: “No court, judge or master shall grant an injunction without previous notice of the time and place of the application having been given to the defendants to be affected thereby, or such of them as "can conveniently be served, unless it shall appear from the bill or affidavit accompanying the same that the "rights of complainant will be unduly prejudiced if the injunction is not issued immediately or without such notice.” (Rev. Stat. chap. 69, par. 3.) An examination of the bill shows the following’averment or positive statement: “That the rights of your orator in the premises will be unduly prejudiced, and your orator will be subjected to great damages and loss, if the injunction in this case is not issued immediately and without notice to said defendants herein.” The affidavit attached to the bill is not on information and belief, but Ernest 0. Schroeder, the complainant, swears positively to the facts set up. It appears from the facts set up in the bill that the rights of the complainant will be unduly prejudiced, and the affidavit being positive, there was a sufficient compliance with the statute. In the authorities referred to by appellant the affidavits were upon “information and belief,” and there was no averment in the bill that the complainant would be unduly prejudiced if the injunction was not issued immediately or without notice.

Third—The principal controversy in this case is in regard to the proper location of the road, now called Main street, as laid out by the highway commissioners of Addison township in„1854. This road runs on the east side of complainant’s property, and the description in his deed running “to the center of the road,” it becomes necessary, in order to correctly locate complainant’s east line, to establish the center of this road. S. T. Armstrong, an engineer and surveyor, at the request of appellee made a survey in 1897, for the purpose of locating this road and establishing the center line. W. S. Gamble, another surveyor, afterwards made a survey for the same purpose, and Armstrong was present, and Gamble testifies: “Armstrong’s survey corresponded with my survey; there was no discrepancy between them.”

The following is the description by which the road was originally laid out and platted by the highway commissioners across the lands of Charles Pierce, November 21, 1854: “Commencing in the center of the Lester road (so called) near the house of Charles Pierce; thence across Meacham’s creek bridge near the house of Dr. E. Smith; thence westerly past and near the house of John Kinney to the town line, being the same route mentioned in the application, which survey is as follows, to-wit: Commencing at a post in the center of the Lester road (so called) near the house of Charles Pierce, on the east half of the south-west quarter of section 8, township 40, north, range 11, east; thence north 33-¡- degrees west over the bridge across Meacham’s creek 20 chains to a post; a locust bears north 33 east distance 62 links; another locust bears north 46 west distance 72 links; thence south 89 west to a stake near the house of J. A. L. Kinney 30.36 chains; a locust bears north 30 west distance 16 links; thence north 78 degrees, west 29 chains 15 links to a stake on the west line of the north-east quarter of section 7, of said township; thence north 77 degrees west 15 chains 75 links to a post on the west line of the said town of Addison. The north-west corner of section 7 bears north distant 25 chains 64 links, passing over lands owned by the following named persons, to-wit: Charles Pierce, E. Smith, J. A. L. Kinney and Lewis E. Landon, Kellogg and the undersigned being of opinion that it is necessary and proper that such road be laid out. It is therefore ordered that a road four rods wide be laid out, and the same is located and laid out according to said survey, and the same is hereby declared to be a public highway.”

The plat of the survey made by the highway commissioners laying the road is as follows:

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original description and plat of the highway commissioners, made when the road was laid out in, 1854, and re-surveyed the road from these notes, and found the center line of the road ran to the eastward of the center line, as claimed by appellant; that it laid nearer to the east side than it did to the west side.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 N.E. 50, 182 Ill. 192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/village-of-itasca-v-schroeder-ill-1899.