Categories: Illinois Appellate Court Opinions

PEOPLE EX REL. RUSCH v. KIRGIS, 287 Ill. App. 378 (1936)

4 N.E.2d 894

The People of the State of Illinois ex rel. John S. Rusch, Defendant in Error, v. Frank J. Kirgis et al., Plaintiffs in Error.

Gen. No. 38,847.Appellate Court of Illinois, First District.
Opinion filed November 30, 1936.

APPEAL AND ERROR, § 219[*] — appeal and not writ of error proper to review contempt order for election misconduct. Appeal is the proper procedure for review of judgment of contempt entered against election judges and clerks found guilty of misconduct in conducting election, and such judgment cannot be reviewed by writ of error.

[*] See Callaghan’s Illinois Digest, same topic and section number.

Error by defendants to the county court of Cook county; the Hon. E. K. JARECKI, Judge, presiding. Heard in the second division of this court for the first district at the October term, 1936. Writ of error dismissed. Opinion filed November 30, 1936.

SIMON H. HERR, of Chicago, for plaintiffs in error.

THOMAS J. COURTNEY, State’s Attorney, OTTO KERNER, Attorney General, and DITCHBURNE LOUNSBURY, of Chicago, for defendants in error.

MR. JUSTICE HALL delivered the opinion of the court.

On February 5, 1936, a petition was filed in the county court of Cook county, in which it was charged that the defendants, Frank J. Kirgis, Steve Burns and James E. Sheehan, judges and clerks of election, were guilty of misconduct and misbehavior as such judges and clerks at a general election held in the city of Chicago Heights, State of Illinois, on April 16, 1936, and were, therefore, guilty of contempt of the county court. After a hearing, the defendants were found guilty of contempt, as charged. An order to show cause had theretofore been issued by the court. Thereafter, this order was made absolute, and each of the defendants was sentenced to serve a term of one year

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in the county jail of Cook county. They now seek to have the judgment of the county court reviewed by writ of error.

The Supreme Court of this State, in the cases of People v. Kotwas, 363 Ill. 336, People v. Ford, 363 Ill. 340, People v. Benjamin, 363 Ill. 344, and recently in the case of People v. Brown, 364 Ill. 273, has held that a judgment of the character of the judgment in this case cannot be reviewed by writ of error, but that appeal is the proper procedure. The writ of error is, therefore, dismissed.

Writ of error dismissed.

DENIS E. SULLIVAN, P. J., and HEBEL, J., concur.

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