Roth v. Yackley

MR. JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, dissenting:

I cannot agree with the court that “[t] he sole issue before us concerns the effect which may constitutionally be given to the amendatory act” (77 Ill. 2d at 427) or that there is any need to discuss that question at all. In my view the dispositive issue in this case is whether plaintiffs may collaterally attack the judgments imposing terms and conditions of probation after failing to object or appeal at the time they were imposed. Until now I had thought it entirely clear that under long-settled principles of res judicata they may not.

No question is raised here of the applicability of section 72 of the Civil Practice Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 110, par. 72) since plaintiffs have not petitioned under its terms. Likewise, the habeas corpus act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 65, par. 22) and the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 122 — 1 et seq.) are unavailable because plaintiffs are not incarcerated and there is no claim that they have suffered substantial denial of constitutional rights. The availability of relief must therefore depend on the common law principles governing collateral attack on judgments.

The basic and universally recognized rule (46 Am. Jur. 2d Judgments sec. 621 (1969)) delimiting the availability of collateral attack has been stated innumerable times by this court over the years. In People v. Kidd (1947), 398 Ill. 405, 409-10 , the court gave a comprehensive statement of this rule:

“If a court has jurisdiction its judgment may be directly attacked for errors or irregularities, but however manifestly erroneous the decision may be, it is binding upon all parties and privies until it is reversed or set aside in a direct proceeding for that purpose. (Harding Co. v. Harding, 352 Ill. 417 ; Markley v. People ex rel. Kochersperger, 171 Ill. 260 .) Jurisdiction to hear and decide a cause necessarily includes the right to render an erroneous decision. (Murch v. Epley, 385 Ill. 138 .) The judgment of a court which had jurisdiction is immune from collateral attack, even though such judgment is erroneous. (Woodward v. Ruel, 355 Ill. 163 .) This rule was annouced by this court many years ago in the case of Young v. Lorain, 11 Ill. 624 . We there stated that when a court has properly acquired jurisdiction and is authorized to hear and adjudge, and its judgment ‘being thus entered by authority of law, no matter how erroneous it may be, or even absurd — though it be made in palpable violation of the law itself, and manifestly against the evidence — is, nevertheless, binding upon all whom the law says shall be bound by it, that is, upon all parties and privies to it, until it is reversed in a regular proceeding for that purpose. While it remains a judgment, it cannot be inquired into, nor its regularity questioned, in any collateral proceeding. ***.’ A judgment which is null and void may not be used as a basis for the application of the doctrine of res judicata, but a judgment does not lose its effectiveness as res judicata from the mere fact that it is irregular or erroneous. The doctrine of res judicata is not dependent upon the correctness of the judgment, or of the verdict or finding on which it is based. ( 30 Am. Jur. 939 , sec. 198; Phelps v. City of Chicago, 331 Ill. 80 ; McFall v. Kirkpatrick, 236 Ill. 281 .) Nor is the value of a plea of former adjudication to be determined by the reasons which the court rendering the former judgment may have had for doing so. (City of Elmhurst v. Kegerreis, 392 Ill. 195 .) The effect of the former judgment as a bar is the same whether resting upon an erroneous view of the law or not. (Baltimore Steamship Co. v. Phillips, 274 U.S. 316 , 47 S. Ct. 600 .)”

No question is raised regarding the jurisdiction of the courts which imposed the fines and costs, and plaintiffs cannot escape the application of this long-settled rule. The case would be otherwise if the statute under which plaintiffs were prosecuted had later been held unconstitutional. This court has been scrupulous to afford some form of collateral attack to a defendant who asserts a substantial denial of his constitutional rights in the proceedings in which he was convicted. (See People v. Meyerowitz (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 200, 205 , citing People v. Sarelli (1973), 55 Ill. 2d 169 ; People v. Warr (1973), 54 Ill. 2d 487 ; People v. Pier (1972), 51 Ill. 2d 96 ; People v. Davis (1968), 39 Ill. 2d 325 .) There is no claim, however, that the statute authorizing probation in this case (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 56½, par. 710) was unconstitutional. This court merely held, in People v. DuMontelle (1978), 71 Ill. 2d 157 , that imposition of a fine was not among the “reasonable terms and conditions” of probation authorized by the statute.

In the light of DuMontelle, therefore, the trial court that imposed fines upon the present plaintiffs simply misinterpreted the statute. For purposes of res judicata, however, a trial court’s erroneous construction of a statute is no more vulnerable to collateral attack than any other form of nonconstitutional error. In Chicago Title & Trust Co. v. Mack (1932), 347 Ill. 480, 486 , this court noted that “[a] n erroneous decision arising from the misconstruction of a statute does not render the resulting judgment void,” and the court accordingly refused to allow a collateral attack on the judgment. (See also Lord v. Board of Supervisors (1942), 314 Ill. App. 161 .) In the context of Federal habeas corpus, a distinguished commentator has noted that “no one supposes that a person who is confined, after a proper trial, may mount a collateral attack because the court has misinterpreted a law of the United States; indeed the Supreme Court has explicitly decided the contrary even where the error was as apparent as could be.” Friendly, Is Innocence Irrelevant? Collateral Attack on Criminal Judgments, 38 U. Chi. L. Rev. 142 , 154 (1970), citing Sunal v. Large (1947), 332 U.S. 174 , 91 L. Ed. 1982 , 67 S. Ct. 1588 .

Plaintiffs here could have objected to the imposition of the fines as a condition of probation. If their objections had been overruled, they could have appealed. Having failed to do so, they have allowed the trial court judgments to become res judicata and cannot now attack them. As Mr. Justice Douglas said in Sunal v. Large (1947), 332 U.S. 174, 182 , 91 L. Ed. 1982, 1989 , 67 S. Ct. 1588 , 1593:

“If defendants who accept the judgment of conviction and do not appeal can later renew their attack on the judgment *** litigation in these criminal cases will be interminable. Wise judicial administration of the *** courts counsels against such course, at least where the error does not trench on any constitutional rights of defendants nor involve the jurisdiction of the trial court.”

I would affirm the judgment of the circuit court dismissing the complaints.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH joins in this dissent.