Court Opinion

ID: 9742935
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:22:55.501636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:37.454067
License: Public Domain

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION ON DENIAL OF REHEARING Mr. JUSTICE MEJDA delivered the opinion of the court: The city of Evanston has petitioned for a rehearing of this court’s determination that Northwestern University has exhausted its local and administrative remedies, urging that “there was no evidence produced in any meaningful manner” before the local zoning bodies. We disagree.  As a general rule, evidence to which no objection is made is properly in the case for all purposes, and even incompetent evidence admitted without objection is entitled to its natural probative effect. (Bunch v. Rose (1973), 10 Ill. App. 3d 198, 293 N.E.2d 8.) Moreover, strict rules concerning the admissibility of evidence do not apply in proceedings before committees of laymen. See Mitchell v. Sackett (1960), 27 Ill. App. 2d 335, 169 N.E.2d 833. The University presented its “statement of facts” to each zoning body, and the statement was received without objection. In addition to the statement, the university offered to and did provide information as requested. In proceedings before the Zoning Amendment Committee on July 1, 1976, a member of the committee staff identified for the record “quite a bit of new documentation,” which included a “fairly large packet of materials” submitted by the university. We would further note that at the hearings before the local zoning bodies, area residents testified and an attorney representing objectors read “notes from witnesses unable to attend.” The attorney also presented for the record certain documents which were among 6000 documents purportedly obtained through court process. Among these were a letter from a person affiliated with the university’s traffic institute, a report from the minutes of a staff meeting held by the president of the university, a document from the university’s planning department, and letters of inquiry into the use of the facilities by several entities engaged in private enterprise. The attorney also tendered “for the file” two separate series of area photographs, newspaper articles, an impact statement prepared by a private entity, and a letter from a past president of the university.  Unlike administrative review of a ruling by a zoning board, we are not here concerned with the quality or nature of the evidence received nor the correctness of the ruling. The issue confronting this court is whether under the circumstances of this case reasonable effort has been made to provide the local authorities with an opportunity to act on the matter. (See Sinclair Pipe Line Co. v. Village of Richton Park (1960), 19 Ill. 2d 370, 167 N.E.2d 406.) Considering the proceedings and the presentation before the boards as a whole, we cannot agree with the city that no evidence was produced in any meaningful or good faith effort to exhaust local administrative remedies. The petition for rehearing is denied. LORENZ and WILSON, JJ., concur.