Court Opinion

ID: 9525495
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:04:24.043495+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:15:10.722109
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE SCHAEFER, dissenting: In my opinion this case should not be entertained as a class action. The class is described this way in the complaint: “Now comes MICHAEL J. GOLDSTEIN and MARY KLABISCH, individually and on behalf of all other taxpayers of the State of Illinois residing outside of Cook County, Illinois, similarly situated, and complaining of the Defendants, and each of them, states as follows: COUNT I 1. Individual Plaintiff, MICHAEL J. GOLDSTEIN, is a taxpayer of the State of Illinois residing at 1710 Midland Avenue, Highland Park, Lake County, Illinois and individual Plaintiff, MARY KLABISCH, is a taxpayer of the State of Illinois residing at 548 73rd Street, Downers Grove, DuPage County, Illinois. 2. Class Plaintiffs are taxpayers of the State of Illinois other than those taxpayers residing in Cook County, Illinois.” (Emphasis added.) The first difficulty is that the class as described includes only those taxpayers residing outside of Cook County. If this means anything, it means that none of the funds that are to be paid to the State Treasurer can be used for the benefit of the taxpayers in Cook County. I do not see any legal basis on which this exclusion from the purported class can be sustained. The second problem that troubles me is that the purported class includes taxpayers in those counties other than Cook which have retained the 4% — just as Cook County did. For example, one of the named plaintiffs is a citizen of Lake County — a very wealthy county — which, like Cook County, has not remitted the 4% to the State Treasurer. I do not understand how a taxpayer in Lake County, or any other nonremitting county, can represent the class, or even be included in it, while Cook County taxpayers are excluded. Equity’s requirement that one who seeks equitable relief must come with clean hands still has vitality. A further problem arises from the following paragraph in the judgment order of the trial court: “3. The Court retains jurisdiction of this cause for the purposes of a determination of the issue of an accounting by the County Treasurer and his predecessors as to funds heretofore collected and for a determination as to attorneys fees.” (Emphasis supplied.) The complaint seeks an accounting for “all fees retained by Defendant Rosewell and his predecessors and heretofore turned over to said County of Cook, and to segregate and place those funds in a trust fund to be distributed pursuant to the administration and orders of this Court.” No similar relief is requested as to Lake County, or any of the other nonremitting counties. In my opinion this is not a proper class action, nor does it state a proper case for equitable relief. It could and should "have been handled in a simple and uncomplicated manner by a mandamus action to compel the payment of the funds in question into the State treasury.