Walter Rogers, Inc. v. Mortimer

153 N.E.2d 855, 19 Ill. App. 2d 381
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 3, 1958
DocketGen. 47,337
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 153 N.E.2d 855 (Walter Rogers, Inc. v. Mortimer) 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
Walter Rogers, Inc. v. Mortimer, 153 N.E.2d 855, 19 Ill. App. 2d 381 (Ill. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

JUSTICE BRYANT

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from an order entered in the Superior Court of Cook County on September 12, 1957, ordering a writ of mandamus to issue to the defendants William J. Mortimer and the County of Cook commanding them to accept plaintiff’s plans and drawings and application for a building permit for a service building and a 478-unit trailer camp dated July 15, 1957, presented on July 29,1957, and to issue the building permit to the plaintiff in accordance with the plans and application.

Subsequent to the entry of the aforementioned order on September 12, 1957, on or about September 13, 1957, the plaintiff resubmitted its application of July 29, 1957, but requested that the number of trailers be reduced from 478 to 90. This application was refused. Thereupon the plaintiff petitioned for and procured the entry of a rule to show cause for failure to comply with the order of September 12, 1957. The petition and the rule to show cause and the defendant’s notice of appeal were all filed on September 27, 1957. After this appeal was perfected and a supersedeas bond was filed in the amount of $20,000, the hearing on the rule was continued generally, pending the disposition of this appeal.

On July 29, 1957, plaintiff presented an application dated July 15, 1957, to the Building and Zoning Bureau of Cook County for a permit to construct a service or utility building and a 478-unit trailer camp at 123rd Street and Homan Avenue, Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois. The plans and specifications were submitted with the application, which disclosed accommodations for an eventual occupancy of 478 trailers. The proposed service or utility building contained provisions for an office, a laundry room with six to eight washer-dryer units, one men’s toilet, one women’s toilet, two wash tubs, a boiler room, and a well and pump room. The plaintiff also accompanied the application with a permit from the State of Illinois to construct a park containing 90 trailer spaces.

The application was not accepted on the ground of noncompliance with the existing Hlinois statutes and Cook County building ordinances and building* regulations for trailer camps, and also because of the variance from the State of Illinois permit. The plaintiff thereupon filed the petition for mandamus.

The immediate question here is whether the Superior Court properly entered the order directing a writ of mandamus to issue in this case.

On the date of the application for the building-permit the following- ordinances and statutes were in effect:

a. A zoning- ordinance of the County of Cook which classified the property upon which it was proposed to erect this trailer camp as 1-2, and under that classification a trailer camp was a permitted use. That ordinance was adopted in 1940.

b. Building Regulations for Tourist Camps, adopted by Cook County in December, 1948, which were adopted by reference as a part of the building ordinance of Cook County, Illinois, in 1949. This building-ordinance designated the County Superintendent of Highways as a building and zoning- officer and vested him with authority to administer and enforce all the provisions of the ordinance. The defendant William J. Mortimer, County Superintendent of Highways, was so appointed. The building regulations for tourist camps required the construction of service buildings and the provision of facilities in excess of those provided for in the plans accompanying the application for a permit in the instant case.

c. A statute was passed in 1953, by the legislature of the State of Illinois which related to trailer coaches or mobile homes and classified them as “dependent” trailer coach or “independent” trailer coach, the distinction being that the independent trailer coach contained toilet and bath or shower facilities, while the dependent coach did not and had to rely upon service buildings for those facilities. The Act also provided for the issuance by the State of a permit to construct or an original permit. It was under this statute that the State permit to construct a camp for 90 independent trailer units had been issued. That statute also provided that such a permit did not relieve the applicant from securing building permits in municipalities or counties having a building code or from complying with any municipal or county zoning or other ordinance applicable thereto. This is the only one of the pertinent statutes or ordinances which makes the classification of dependent or independent trailer coaches.

It is therefore clear that the issuance by the Department of Public Health of the State of Illinois of the permit to construct a trailer coach park containing 90 independent trailer spaces on the property in question did not automatically require the defendant to issue the building permit. The classification in the State Statute of dependent and independent trailer coaches did not make that classification a part of the ordinances of the County of Cook which had been previously passed. The plans submitted did not provide in the service building for the facilities required by the building ordinance of tbe County of Cook relating to tourist camps. The application when made was for 478 independent units, and the permit granted by the State was for 90 independent units.

Many collateral issues have been urged in this case. It has been represented that the plaintiff has spent large sums of money relying upon the county zoning ordinance which made it possible for him to use the property for the purposes for which these permits are sought. It has been urged that, although the camp was built for independent units, there was no assurance that it would always be operated in such a manner as to house only independent units, and that, if a large number of dependent units were quartered in the camp, the service building as planned would be entirely inadequate. It appears that the County Board attempted to stop the issuance of this permit by a special resolution directed toward this specific property. The administrative officers sought the advice of the State’s Attorney’s office, which advised them not to refuse the permit upon the basis of that resolution. All of these collateral matters are entirely unimportant in determining whether or not the writ of mandamus should have been granted.

It has been urged by the appellee that, because the State Statute of 1953 classified trailer coaches or mobile homes as dependent and independent, and that a method of construction of trailers has developed which renders a greater portion of them independent of facilities furnished by the service buildings of tourist camps, the Cook County ordinance, although it is a general one in its terms and applies to all tourist camps, is not now applicable and has been in effect repealed. This rather unusual doctrine of the repeal of an ordinance of a municipality by change in conditions to which it applies from those which existed at the time it was passed is said to be supported by the decision, of this court in People ex rel. Brewer v. Kelly, 295 Ill. App. 156. In that case there was a building ordinance of the City of Chicago, and a portion of it related to windows. After providing for distances of walls between windows and the size of windows in relation to the square footage of floor space, it provided, “. . .

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Bluebook (online)
153 N.E.2d 855, 19 Ill. App. 2d 381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walter-rogers-inc-v-mortimer-illappct-1958.