Case In Which City's Settelment With a Company Was Not Enforceable Against Taxpayers

Does a Taxpayer Have the Right to Appeal if His Suit for the Benefit of His City is Involuntarily Dismissed and the City Settles Into Agreement With the Defendant Company ? In City of Chicago ex rel. Konstantelos v. Duncan Traffic Equipment Co., 102 Ill. App. 3d 304, 316-17, 429 N.E.2d 1223, 1231-32, 57 Ill. Dec. 860 (1981), a taxpayer brought a suit in the name and for the benefit of the City of Chicago (the City) against Duncan Traffic Equipment (Duncan), a parking meter inspection company, and others to recover monies paid by the City for inspections that were never performed. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 306, 429 N.E.2d at 1224. Some time later, the City filed its own suit involving the same subject matter and against some of the same defendants. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 306, 429 N.E.2d at 1224. The taxpayers's suit was involuntarily dismissed. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 306, 429 N.E.2d at 1224. Within 21 days of the dismissal of the taxpayer's suit, the City's suit was voluntarily dismissed pursuant to a settlement agreement between the City and the defendants named in the City's suit, wherein the defendants agreed to pay the City a sum of $ 5,000. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 306, 312, 429 N.E.2d at 1224, 1228. The taxpayer appealed the dismissal of both his suit and the City's suit. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 306, 429 N.E.2d at 1224. On appeal, the defendants contended that the City bound all taxpayers by the settlement agreement and, therefore, the taxpayer could not appeal. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 316, 429 N.E.2d at 1231. This court disagreed and held that the $ 5,000 settlement agreement between the City and the defendants was not enforceable against taxpayers because taxpayers were not fully and adequately represented when the agreement was entered into "in a swift fashion, with no depositions or meaningful discovery," and the settlement was based solely on the question of payment for work never performed in the inspection of 636 parking meters, although in his complaint the taxpayer alleged that the City paid Duncan $ 270,681 for "not inspecting" 34,974 meters. Duncan Traffic Equipment, 102 Ill. App. 3d at 316, 429 N.E.2d at 1231-32.