173 N.E. 750 | Ill. | 1930
This is a quo warranto proceeding instituted in the circuit court of Cook county on the relation of John B. Fergus and H.H. Harrison against the defendants, as senators and *224 representatives elected to the Fifty-sixth General Assembly, to require them to show by what right and authority they held their offices for their respective districts. The petition for leave to file the information, which was granted, and the information, both set forth in detail the basis for the proceeding, which was that every General Assembly since 1911, including the Fifty-sixth General Assembly, had failed to re-apportion the State into districts on the basis of population, as required by section 6 of article 4 of the constitution of 1870, and that each General Assembly since 1911, including the Fifty-sixth, composed of the defendants, was illegal, unconstitutional and void, and that the defendants are therefore not eligible and qualified to act as members of the General Assembly to represent the respective districts for which they were elected. Some of the defendants filed demurrers, and the others, under special appearances, presented the same points on motions to quash the writ and dismiss the suit, asserting that the court lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter of the proceeding, and had no power, in any event, to grant relief against the defendants. The trial court sustained the demurrers and motions to quash and entered a judgment dismissing the information, and this appeal followed.
Appellants contend the trial court erred in sustaining the demurrers and motions to quash, and assert that where an information in the nature of quo warranto in proper form calls upon a defendant to show by what right he holds a public office, the defendant must answer by disclaimer or by justifying, and if he justifies he must set out his title, particularly showing by what right he holds the office. (People
v. Central Union Telephone Co.
We have held that this court has no power, under the constitution, to compel the legislature to re-apportion the State, as required by the constitution. (Fergus v. Marks,
The judgment of the circuit court sustaining the demurrers and dismissing the information is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.