# Aleckson v. Village of Round Lake Park

> Illinois Supreme Court · April 17, 1997 · 176 Ill. 2d 82

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9725626

## Case

- **Full name:** ROBERT ALECKSON Et Al., Appellees, v. THE VILLAGE OF ROUND LAKE PARK Et Al. (Elizabeth Ohlinger Et Al., Appellants)
- **Court:** Illinois Supreme Court
- **Decided:** April 17, 1997
- **Citations:** 176 Ill. 2d 82; 223 Ill. Dec. 451; 679 N.E.2d 1224; 1997 Ill. LEXIS 42
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Harrison
- **Judges:** Freeman, Harrison, Heiple
- **Cited by:** 93 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9725626

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that it was not unreasonable for plaintiffs, when faced with conflicting appellate authority, to rely upon the authority from their home appellate district
- noting that the supreme court had previously implicitly recognized this authority when it cited an appellate court’s prospective application of Illinois Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court case law

## Opinion text

JUSTICE HARRISON, specially concurring:
Illinois has but one appellate court. People v. Granados, 172 Ill. 2d 358, 371 (1996). Although the state is divided into five judicial districts, those districts have nothing whatever to do with the court’s authority. Their sole purpose is to define the political units from which judges of the supreme and appellate courts are selected. Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, § 2.
Because there is only one appellate court, a decision by any division of that court is binding precedent on all circuit courts throughout the state, regardless of locale. People v. Harris, 123 Ill. 2d 113, 128 (1988). That being so, I fail to see how the majority can hold "that when conflicts arise amongst the districts, the circuit court is bound by the decisions of the appellate court of the district in which it sits.” 176 Ill. 2d at 92. Such a rule makes sense in the federal judiciary, where there are various courts of appeal which are autonomous, but it is wholly inconsistent with the principle that the appellate court in Illinois is a single body whose decisions are binding on every circuit court in the state.
Given the unitary nature of the Illinois appellate court and the reach of its decisions, what circuit courts should be doing is following the most recent appellate court decision on point. That is so even if the decision conflicts with a prior decision of an appellate court division located within the circuit court’s particular district. The geography is simply irrelevant.
Subject to this qualification, I agree with the majority’s analysis and with the result it reaches.
CHIEF JUSTICE HEIPLE joins in this special concurrence.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9725626. Public record. Not legal advice.