183 N.E. 333 | Ill. | 1932
This is an appeal from a judgment of the superior court of Cook county quashing the record of appellants, as members of the fire and police commission of the city of Berwyn, in a proceeding before them in which they entered an order that appellee, Thomas Bartunek, a sergeant of the police force of said city, be "reduced to the ranks and indefinitely suspended from the service."
The record of the proceedings before appellants which resulted in the order suspending appellee from the service as a police officer of said city was brought before the court by a writ of certiorari issued on the petition of appellee. The record filed as a return to the writ does not appear in the transcript of the record filed in this court, and the sole contention of appellants is that the superior court had no jurisdiction to review the proceedings before them by writ *382 of certiorari, and that the assumption of jurisdiction by the court was a violation of article 3 of the constitution, which provides that the powers of government are divided into three separate and distinct departments — the legislative, executive and judicial — and that no person or collection of persons being one of these departments shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others.
It is established by many decisions of this court that the circuit courts and the superior court of Cook county have jurisdiction to issue the common law writ ofcertiorari to any inferior tribunal exercising judicial or quasi-judicial powers to determine whether or not such tribunal, in any particular case before it, had jurisdiction and proceeded legally, when no appeal is allowed or other mode provided by law for reviewing the proceedings of such tribunal. (Commissioners of Drainage District v. Griffin,
Appellants, to sustain their contention, rely upon the case of City of Aurora v. Schoeberlein,
A board of fire and police commissioners in conducting a hearing on charges preferred against a member of the fire or police department of a city and in making its decision and order in the case exercises executive powers. No mode of reviewing the proceedings of such board is provided by statute, and circuit courts and the superior court of Cook county have jurisdiction to issue the common law writ ofcertiorari for the purpose of determining whether or not such board in any such case had jurisdiction and proceeded according to law, and in exercising such jurisdiction such courts do not exercise executive power. Since the record of the proceedings before the superior court is not made a part of the transcript of the record filed in this court we have no means of determining whether or not the superior court erred in quashing the record of the proceedings before appellants. The superior court of Cook county *384
is a court of general jurisdiction. A court of general jurisdiction, acting within the scope of its authority, is presumed to have jurisdiction to render any judgment or decree entered by it until the contrary appears. (Cassell v. Joseph,
The judgment of the superior court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.