Court Opinion

ID: 9737050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:14:09.763288+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:23:56.208188
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SCARIANO, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. As the majority opinion notes, the supreme court held in Village of Park Forest v. Fagan (1976), 64 Ill. 2d 264, 267, 356 N.E.2d 59, that the language of Rule 504 “clearly indicates that the 45-day period is not meant to be absolute.” The court went on to “observe that Rule 504 contains no language which denies the municipality’s right to prosecute or the trial court’s jurisdiction to hear the case where the appearance date is not timely set. *** Nor do we believe that violation of the rule would ordinarily cause any injury to public interest or private rights.” Accordingly, the court held “that the time limitations in Rule 504 are directory.” 64 Ill. 2d at 268. Here, although it appears to have been practicable to have set the case within the time frame of the rule, the record establishes that the officer did not do so because he thought he had to schedule the matter before the defendant’s statutory summary suspension went into effect. The trial judge acknowledged that the officer “chose, in good faith, to set a different date because he was concerned about the 46 days of the summary suspension. Nobody could fault him for that.” Nevertheless, the judge dismissed the “charges pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 504” because “it was .obviously practicable to set the *** citation for the 49th day.” Defendant does not disagree with the trial judge’s finding that Officer Young acted in good faith when he missed complying with Rule 504 by one day; nor does he dispute that the officer's good faith was based on the honest belief that defendant’s case had to be scheduled before the statutory summary suspension went into effect “because my next court day was the 20th of October, and I thought for the law enforcement sworn report it had to be 46 days or prior, or earlier.” I therefore find it difficult to understand how Officer Young’s sincere attempt to accommodate defendant, in the words of our supreme court in Fagan, caused “any injury to [the] public interest or [to] private rights.” Nor do I read the supreme court’s holding in Fagan “that the time limitations in Rule 504 are directory” to be regarded as ad hoc. 64 Ill. 2d at 268. Accordingly, I would reverse and remand the cause for trial.