People ex rel. Schack v. Brayton

Citations

• 94 Ill. 341

Syllabus

<p>1. Consolidating towns in counties under township organization—can only he done upon a vote of the people. The action of the board of commissioners of Cook county—a county under township organization—on the 12th day of January, 1880, in attempting to unite the towns of North Chicago, West Chicago and South Chicago into one town, by resolution of the board, without submitting the question to a vote of the people, was without authority of law and void.</p> <p>2. Section 37 of chapter 139, Bev. Stafc. 1874, entitled “Township Organization,” expressly provides that county boards in counties which have adopted township organization shall not have power to consolidate several towns into one, except that, upon the petition to the board of one-fourth of the voters in each of the towns proposed to be consolidated, the question shall be submitted to the voters of said towns, and that a majority of voters in each town voting shall have voted in favor of the proposition.</p> <p>3. The first section of the act of 1877, concerning the organization of towns by county boards, does not operate to repeal section 37 of the Township Organization Law of 1874, in regard to the requirement that the question of uniting several towns into one shall be submitted to a vote of the people of the several towns before any action in that regard can become operative.</p> <p>4. The two sections mentioned relate to wholly different subjects. Section 37 of the law of 1874 relates to the subject of consolidating several organized towns into a single town. Section 1 of the act of 1877 has no relation to that subject, but simply provides for the organization of a new town from territory comprising a city containing a certain population, situated within an organized town, without regard to the territorial extent of such new town. The purpose of the act of 1877 was to confer a new power in that regard, not theretofore existing, as the law of 1874 contained a restriction upon the power to create new town