Court Opinion

ID: 9732082
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:07:03.581302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:23.046325
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Underwood, dissenting: It seems to me that, by pleading a lack of clarity where none exists, the court has sought to manufacture an issue upon the basis of which it can seek beyond the statutory language to reach the result it deems desirable. In construing this plain and unambiguous legislative requirement that a plaintiff “must personally serve” to permit service by mail, the majority violate a cardinal rule of statutory construction and depart from the legitimate judicial function: to enforce the law as it is enacted by the legislature. (Department of Public Works and Bldgs. v. Schon, 42 Ill.2d 537; Western National Bank of Cicero v. Village of Kildeer, 19 Ill.2d 342; People ex rel. Mayfield v. City of Springfield, 16 Ill.2d 609; Belfield v. Coop, 8 Ill.2d 293, 307.) While a little judicial legislation may occasionally be tolerable, I cannot subscribe to judicial nullification of what I view as a clearly expressed legislative mandate. The law pertaining to the service of notice in Illinois has always been clear. “When a notice is required and the mode of service is not specified, the law requires that it shall be personal.” Haj v. American Bottle Co., 261 Ill. 362, 364; Johnson v. Pautler, 22 Ill.2d 299, 304; Calkin v. Roberts Park Fire Protection Dist., 398 Ill. 374, 376; Wilson v. Lowmaster, 181 Ill. 170; Chicago and Alton R.R. Co. v. Smith, 78 Ill. 96; Carney v. Tully, 74 Ill. 375. Briefly stated, if the statutory language “personally serve” does not expressly require personal service, then “the mode of service is not specified”; it follows in either event that personal service is required. Since, as the court concedes, service by mail is not personal service, claimant clearly here has not complied with the statute. Dismissal of the suit is therefore mandatory. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 85, par. 8— 103; Minnis v. Friend, 360 Ill. 328; Ouimette v. City of Chicago, 242 Ill. 501; Walters v. City of Ottawa, 240 Ill. 259; Fannon v. City of Aurora, 106 Ill. App. 2d 408, 410. The majority avoids this result by ignoring the issue upon which the circuit court ruled in dismissing the suit, and upon which the appellee relies. In the majority’s own words, this issue is “whether service of the notice of injury by registered mail, return receipt requested, constitutes personal service as required by the statute.” (My emphasis.) The court focuses instead on its own manufactured issue as to the proper person and place for service, and points to the statute’s “lack of clarity” on this issue as the justification for inquiring beyond the words of the statute to determine the legislative intent. The question whether service upon the maintenance personnel would be proper, intriguing as it may be to the majority, does not arise here. No one disputes that in this case a proper person — the city clerk, was served in a proper place. The only dispute is as to the absence of personal service. Moreover, while it is the “lack of clarity” on what I consider a totally irrelevant question which leads the majority to ignore the statutory language altogether, the court does not actually resolve the issue as to the proper method of service but simply concludes that the requirement, whatever it may be, is satisfied here because “the City of Tuscola was in fact notified”, and “it can be shown that the local public entity did, in fact, have notice.” It is also worthy of note that the opinion of the court creates a multitude of uncertainties where certainty has heretofore existed. Will the use of certified mail suffice for the giving of notice? Regular mail? And what about late notice? Or what of the absence of any notice in a case in which the public entity has acquired complete information from sources other than the plaintiff regarding the injury? I do not know the answers, but of greater consequence is the fact that neither, in light of this opinion, will the bar. Since the majority finds discussion of the constitutional questions raised by plaintiff unnecessary, no useful purpose would be served by a discussion of them here other than to say I do not find plaintiff’s argument persuasive. See King v. Johnson, 47 Ill.2d 247. I would affirm the judgment dismissing the complaint for failure to personally serve the notice of injury. Mr. Justice Davis joins in this dissent.