TaiLexi AI U.S. Case Law

People ex rel. Burke v. Mayor of Bloomington

The People ex rel. William Burke v. The Mayor and City Council of the City of Bloomington

People ex rel. Burke v. Mayor of Bloomington, 63 Ill. 207 (1872)
Download
Format
Include

Star paging (*137) is kept for pin cites.

Court
Illinois Supreme Court · State Highest Courts
Decided
January 15, 1872
Judges
Sheldon
Citations
63 Ill. 207
Cited by 13
Syllabus
1. City op Bloomington, duty of., to keep its streets in repair. The charter of the city of Bloomington gives the city council full power to keep in repair the streets, and to provide for keeping them in repair, and to prohibit obstructions therein. This power being granted to be exercised for the public benefit, its execution can be insisted upon as a duty. 2. Same—of the remedy to compel the city authorities to act. And a writ of mandamus is an appropriate proceeding to. compel the city authorities to act. 3. Mandamus to compel a city to put its streets in repair—to whom the writ should he directed. The power having been given to the city council, and the charter providing that the mayor shall preside at its meetings, and in case of a tie in any vote of the council shall give the casting vote, such a writ is properly directed to the mayor and city council, in their official capacity, instead of to the city of Bloomington.
Summary
Appeal from the Circuit Court of McLean county; the Hon. Thomas F. Tipton, Judge, presiding. This was an application to the court below, by William Burke and others, for a writ of mandamus to compel the mayor and city council of the city of Bloomington to remove houses, fences, and other obstructions, from Lumber street in said city. The court, at its September term, 1869, awarded an alternative writ directed “ To the Mayor and City Council of the City of Bloomington, Illinois,” returnable to the next term of the court. At a subsequent term of the court, the defendants filed a general demurrer to the alternative writ, which the court sustained, and gave judgment for the defendants. The relators appeal.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion of the Court — Sheldon

Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.

Mr. Justice Sheldon delivered the opinion of the Court:

It is prima fade the duty of the mayor and city council of the' city of Bloomington to keep the streets of the city free from obstructions. The charter gives the city council full power to keep in repair the streets, and to provide for keeping them in repair, and to prohibit obstructions therein. This power is granted to be exercised for the public benefit, and its execution can be insisted on as a duty. City of Bloomington v. Bay, 42 Ill. 503 ; Chicago City v. Robbins, 2 Black, 418 .

This power having been given to the city council, and the charter providing that the mayor shall preside at its meetings, and, in case of a tie in any vote of the council, shall give the casting vote, the writ was properly directed to the mayor and city council in their official capacity, instead of to the city of Bloomington, requiring them to do the particular thing specified in the writ, which appertains to their office and duty. The People ex rel. v. Common Council of Syracuse, 20 How. (N.Y.), 491.

A mandamus was an appropriate remedy in the case. Hamman et al. v. City of Covington, 3 Met. (Ky.) 494 ; The State ex rel. Cleveland v. Common Council of Orange, 2 Vroom, 131 ; Borough of Unioniown v. The Commonwealth, 34 Penn. 293 ; Tapping on Mand. 24, 60,132. This disposes of all the points of objection made to the writ, and we are of opinion the demurrer should have been overruled and the respondents required to answer.

The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

Judgment reversed.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

Cited by 13 cases

View all citing references →
1881–1882: 11883–1884: 11897–1898: 11899–1900: 21901–1902: 11905–1906: 11915–1916: 11917–1918: 11921–1922: 11927–1928: 11945–1946: 218812026peak 1899 · 2

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. State ex rel. Winterburg v. Demaree80 Ind. 519 (1881)
  2. People ex rel. Kelly v. Raymond57 N.E. 1066 (Ill. 1900)
  3. Wren v. City of Indianapolis96 Ind. 206 (1884)
  4. State ex rel. Cutter v. Kamman51 N.E. 483 (Ind. 1898)
  5. People ex rel. Ammann v. Dipper63 N.E.2d 870 (Ill. 1945)
  6. Olson v. Honett157 N.W. 1092 (Minn. 1916)

Most recent

  1. Cunningham v. County of Hawaii37 Haw. 283 (1945)
  2. People ex rel. Ammann v. Dipper63 N.E.2d 870 (Ill. 1945)
  3. State ex rel. Bowyer v. City of Spencer138 S.E. 312 (W. Va. 1927)
  4. Finney v. Smith227 Ill. App. 146 (1922)
  5. State ex rel. Robinson v. Board of Commissioners97 S.E. 282 (W. Va. 1918)
  6. Olson v. Honett157 N.W. 1092 (Minn. 1916)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 2

DepthCaseCited by
Chicago City v. Robbins, 67 U.S. (2 Black) 418 (1863) 245
City of Bloomington v. Bay, 42 Ill. 503 (1867) 32

Keyboard shortcuts

/Focus the search box
j kNext / previous result
EnterOpen the selected result
xAdd / remove the selected result from the download list
n pNext / previous search term in a case
cCopy the citation of the current case
+ −Larger / smaller reading text
?Show this list