Cope v. District Fair Ass'n

Citations

• 99 Ill. 489
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 200

Syllabus

<p>1. Injunction — to restrain the allowing of gambling on fair ground. An injunction will not lie at the suit of a stockholder in an incorporated fair association, restraining the company and its officers from permitting, for a pecuniary reward, gamblers to congregate and ply their vocation upon the grounds of the company during its annual exhibitions, where it does not appear, from the bill or otherwise, that the complainant or the company has thereby sustained some pecuniary injury or loss.</p> <p>2. Chancery —jurisdiction. It is no part of the mission of a court of equity to administer the criminal law of the State, or to enforce the principles of religion and morality, except so far as it may be incidental to the enforcement of property rights, and perhaps other matters of equitable cognizance.</p> <p>3. Fair Association — no power to license gambling. The licensing of gambling tables on fair grounds is foreign to the objects and purposes of a fair association, and is clearly ultra vires. If such licenses are granted, the officers alone would be responsible, unless authorized by the stockholders, in which case it would be such an abuse of the company’s franchises as might warrant the State in reclaiming them.</p>