Court Opinion

ID: 9716806
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:51:37.852058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:49.125341
License: Public Domain

Supplemental Opinion on Denial op Petition poe Rehearing  The complete misapprehension of the scope of onr original opinion and the asserted catastrophic results which will flow therefrom, all as reflected by the petition for rehearing, suggest an elaboration of our views as originally expressed. It seems to us elemental that we are fenced in by the pleadings to those facts and issues properly presented to the trial court as reflected in the record together with such matters of which we can take judicial notice. The parties erected the fence. We didn’t. It seems to us beyond the pale of judicial propriety or authority for us to crawl under, climb over, or peek through that fence to view and consider matters not within the enclosure. Appellants rely solely upon 11-76.1 and 11-76.4 as the legislative origin of their authority to act. These sections in substantially the same form have been a part of our law since 1889. Session Laws 1889, p 85. Throughout their history they have used the disjunctive “or” rather than the conjunctive “and” and thus have never by precise language ever authorized a combined sale of real and personal property. This seems even more apparent in their present form where the sale of real estate is confined to one section and applies to all municipalities regardless of size, while the sale of personalty is in another section and applies only to municipalities of less than $500,000. Advertisements for bids is required in the sale of real estate, but not in the sale of personal property. Provision is made for the conversion of personal property into other material useful to the city and for its trade-in on the purchase of new equipment. The findings of the council to justify a sale of real estate is more restrictive than are those for a sale of personal property. These observations suggest that the legislature was thinking of a sale of one or the other type of property, bnt not of a property or a going business where both are an integral part. To use these sections the council found it necessary to and did dismember the public utility and sell its separate parts. It is abundantly clear from the defendants’ proposal of August 13th that it was purchasing the “entire physical properties.” It was not interested in real estate as such or in personal property as such. It was interested only in both, each complementing the other as the physical structure of a going business. All parties concede that there is no specific statute either authorizing the city to accept such a proposal or authorizing any combined sale of real and personal property. There is nothing in sections 11-76.1 and 11-76.4 indicating to us that the legislature even contemplated such a sale in the adoption of these sections. We would further observe that the term “property” may denote intangibles of value such as name, “good will”, etc. Where, as here, the proposal and the contracts suggest a limitation to “entire physical properties,” it would seem that intangibles may not have been included and assets of value were not sold. Thus an integral part of the utility was not included.  The power of the City of Bloomington to “acquire, construct, own and operate” a public utility is “subject to the provisions of this Division 117.” Ill Rev Stats 1961, chap 24, § 11-117-1. “The words ‘subject to’, used in their ordinary sense mean ‘subordinate to,’ ‘subservient to’ or ‘limited by.’ ” Englistein v. Mints, 345 Ill 48, 61, 177 NE 746, 752. The power conferred by this statute is subordinate to, subservient to, or limited by or to the express powers contained in Division 117. Nowhere is there an express power of sale. Nowhere is there an express power to terminate. Nowhere is there an express power to alienate. Indeed 117-5 forbids the discontinuance of operation by the city through lease to another for longer than five years, or a renewal thereof, until sixty days after the adoption of an ordinance without a permissive referendum and if a petition is filed for a referendum, then the ordinance is effective only after its approval by a majority of those electors voting on the proposition. Division 117 is confined to and defines public utilities. Since a city may only discontinue its own operation of a utility by way of lease in this manner, it seems clear to us that the legislature did not intend that a city may discontinue its own operation of a utility by way of sale. If the power to temporarily transfer to another the authority to operate a public utility requires specific authority— and this section suggests that the legislature thought so — then surely the power to discontinue and alienate forever requires a specific legislative authority that is wholly absent. We think Division 117 places municipal public utilities in a category by themselves. An examination of the cases cited from other jurisdictions reveals that in the same enactment, whether constitution, city charter or general statute, the power of acquisition is coupled with the power of disposition and the right to own is coupled with the right to sell, to lease, to pledge or to encumber. The right to lease, pledge or encumber a municipal public utility is specifically granted by our legislature. It seems clear to us that if there is a necessity for specific legislation on these limited subjects for a power to exist, that specific legislation is required for the power to discontinue and sell. The legislature is silent. We cannot and should not by judicial interpretation fill that void. For these additional reasons, we adhere to our original opinion and deny the petition for rehearing. CROW, P. J. and SPIVEY, J., concur in Supplemental Opinion on Denial of Petition for Rehearing.