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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Annexation Statute of Limitations Does Not Bar Affirmative Defense


A municipality filed a lawsuit to disconnect certain property from a library district after the village had annexed those parcels.  The library district responded that because the village failed to follow all of the required statutory procedures for annexation, the parcels should remain within the library district's jurisdiction. Specifically, the district claimed that the village failed to file affidavits that it had served the library district trustees with the statutorily required notices. The village argued that the district's defenses were barred by the one-year statute of limitations contained in Section 7-1-46 of the Illinois Municipal Code.  

The trial court agreed with the village, finding that the district was barred from raising procedural deficiencies as a defense after the one year annexation statute of limitations had expired.  On appeal, however, the appellate court reversed, finding that statute of limitations bar stale claims, not defenses based on clear language in the statute that bars the commencement of an action to contest an annexation but makes no mention of defending against such a challenge.  Stivers v. Bean, 2014 IL App (4th) 130255

Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf, Ancel Glink

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