Case ID: ill-app_208/html/0277-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Taylor", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Austin E. Gordon, Defendant in Error, v. City of Chicago et al., Plaintiffs in Error.
    Gen. No. 22,485.
    (Not to he reported in full.)
    Abstract of the Decision.
    Mandamus, § 117
      
      —what delay in filing petition constitutes laches tarring reinstatement of police officer. Where one discharged from the police force of a city delays filing a petition for reinstatement for over 18 years and fails to state in his petition for mandamus any facts tending to excuse his delay, his laches bars any relief.
    Error to the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. John Gibbons, Judge, presiding. Heard in the Branch Appellate Court at the October term, 1916.
    Reversed and remanded with directions.
    Opinion filed November 30, 1917.
    Statement of the Case.
    Petition by Austin E. Gordon, plaintiff, against the City of Chicago, William Hale Thompson, mayor, Charles C. Healy, general superintendent of police, and Charles E. Frazier, Percy B. Coffin and Joseph P. Geary, as civil service commissioners, defendants, for a writ of mandamus to compel said city to place his name upon the roster of detective sergeants of the city and upon its pay roll, and to permit him to enter upon the performance of his duties in that capacity and to receive the salary attached to such office. To reverse a judgment granting the writ, defendants .prosecute this writ of error.
    Samuel A. Ettelson, for plaintiffs in error; Roy S. Gaskill, of counsel.
    No appearance for defendant in error.
    
      
      See Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number.
    
   Mr. Justice Taylor

delivered the opinion of the court.