Agricultural Trans. Assn. v. Carpentier

Plaintiffs appealed to the Appellate Court for the Third District from an order of the circuit court of Sangamon County dissolving
a temporary injunction and dismissing their suit for want of equity. On motion of the defendants-appellees, the cause was
transferred to the Supreme Court on the theory that the Appellate Court was without jurisdiction because revenue is directly
involved. After such transfer to the Supreme Court, plaintiffs-appellants filed their motion to transfer the appeal back to
the Appellate Court for the Third District on the theory that the Appellate Court was in error in holding the revenue to be
directly involved. Defendants-appellees also filed their motion to vacate an order entered by the Appellate Court continuing
the temporary injunction in force, pending disposition of the cause, on the theory that such was a void order because of
lack of jurisdiction in the Appellate Court. Said motions have been taken with the case. The complaint in chancery filed by the plaintiff Agricultural Transportation Association alleged that it had paid under protest
certain 1953 truck license fees assessed under the 1951 amendment to the Motor Vehicle Law (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1951, chap. 95
1/2, pars. 9, 12a, and 22,) to the Secretary of State; that a case entitled "Charles F. Mansfield, et al., v. Charles F. Carpentier,
as the Secretary of State of the State of Illinois, et al., No. 53-S-5127" was pending in the superior court of Cook County
attacking the constitutionality of said amendatory act, wherein one of the plaintiffs was engaged exclusively in interstate
commerce; that the United States Supreme Court, in Bode v. Barrett, 344 U.S. 583, 73 S.Ct. 468, 97 L.ed. 567, refused to pass
upon the constitutionality of said amendatory act as applied to such persons engaged exclusively in interstate commerce; that
if said amendatory act were adjudged unconstitutional as to such persons it would be unconstitutional as to everyone; that
said amendatory act was unconstitutional, specifying therefor the same reasons as were alleged in Bode v. Barrett, 412 Ill.
204; that if said amendatory act were held unconstitutional in the case then pending in the superior court of Cook County,
then the Secretary of State of Illinois would have no legal authority to collect the additional fees thereunder from the plaintiff;
that plaintiff sought the return of said funds paid under protest and prayed a temporary injunction against the Secretary
of State and the Treasurer of the State of Illinois, pursuant to the provisions of "An Act in relation to the payment and
disposition of moneys received for or on behalf of the State" (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1951, chap. 127, par. 172,) restraining transfer
of such funds to general State funds until the further order of the court or until the final adjudication of the case pending
in the superior court of Cook County, and for such other relief as equity might require. The temporary injunction was duly
issued as prayed without notice and without bond. Subsequently, the complaint was amended to include additional similar payments
under protest by the plaintiff and approximately 250 intervening petitioners, and a temporary injunction was likewise issued
as to those payments.