Hotz v. Hoyt

Citations

• 135 Ill. 388
• 25 N.E. 753

Syllabus

<p>1. Injunction—commissioners of highways—injury to adjacent land owner—ditches along a highway. To justify a court of equity in enjoining the commissioners of highways from draining and improving a part of a road by ditches, at the suit of an adjoining land owner, not for want of power to make such ditches, or on the ground that the commissioners are about to act without authority of law, but on the ground that they are proposing to discharge their legal duty in such an unskillful manner as to damage such owner, the bill must show a very strong case, and it must be sustained by the proof. If the effect of the proposed action is left in doubt, the injunction will not be issued until the question of nuisance is determined by the actual use of the property.</p> <p>2. The statute has clothed the commissioners of highways with the discretion of determining the best methods of improving the public roads, and such discretion will not be interfered with by a court of equity, unless it is clearly alleged and satisfactorily proved that they are about to abuse it, to the injury of third persons.</p>