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William R. Hazard v. State of Illinois

42 Ill. Ct. Cl. 274 Illinois Court of Claims Filed 1989-11-30 No. 89-CC-0764
Disposition: (No. 89-CC-0764-Claim dismissed.) Agency: Illinois State Board of Education
Cite as: William R. Hazard v. State of Illinois, 42 Ill. Ct. Cl. 274 (1989)

WILLIAM R. HAZARD, Claimant, u. THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Respondent.

Case summary

Claimant sought recovery for breach of an oral agreement with the McHenry County Region Reorganization Committee for research services. The court dismissed the claim because the State of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education were not parties to the contract, and the proper defendant was the Regional Board of School Trustees of McHenry County.

Claim type: Contract

Statutes cited: Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-3; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-3a; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 6-2; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-5

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Headnotes

  1. NEIL F. HARTIGAN, Attorney General (A RLA ROSENTHAL, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), for Respondent.
  2. Scnoou-committee f o r reorganization of schools. Pursuant to the School District Reorganization Act, each educational service region of the State with a population of 1,OOO,OOO or less shall create a committee for the reorganization of school districts consisting of not less than seven public members and the regional superintendent of schools.
  3. SAME-regional board of school trustees-has right to sue. A regional board of school trustees is a body politic with a perpetual existence and the right to sue or be sued.
  4. SAME-duties of Illinois School Board o f Education and county reorganization committee distinguished. The Illinois School Board of Education is designated as the State committee which generally sets up the rules that govern the Reorganization Committee and it also distributes funds to the local committees to offset the costs of reorganization studies, and the local committees have the authority to use the' money allocated for committee member expenses, as well as other reasonable expenses incurred by the committees, but the State committee has no principal-agent relationship with third parties who contract with the local committees.
  5. SAME-Claimant contracted with local reorganization committeeState had no liability-claim dismissed. The Court of Claims dismissed with prejudice a claim for the services rendered by the Claimant for a local school district reorganization committee pursuant to a contract requiring him to conduct research concerning two reorganization studies of certain school districts, since the local committee was responsibile for the expenses incurred in conducting that research, and the State had no principal-agent relationship with the local committee which would render it liable to pay for such services.

CALDWELL , BERNER & CALDWELL (JEFFREY A. ROUHANDEH, of counsel), for Claimant.

RAUCCI, J.

ORDER

RAUCCI, J. This cause coming on to be heard on the motion of Respondent to dismiss the claim herein, due notice [*275] having been given the ‘parties hereto, and the Court being fully advised in the premises: The court finds that the Claimant is seeking recovery for a breach of an oral agreement between Claimant, William Hazard, and the Illinois State Board of Education. On or about the first week of February 1,

1986, McHenry County Region Reorganization Commit

tee, through its agent, Dixie O’Hara, Regional Superintendent of Schools, solicited a proposal from the Claimant to conduct research concerning two reorganization studies of certain school districts in McHenry County.

Claimant agreed to perform said studies and submitted a proposal on March 6, 1986, to Dixie O’Hara. On March

6, 1986, McHenry County Reorganization Committee

through its agent Dixie O’Hara instructed ‘Claimant to begin work on said reorganization studies.

McHenry County Reorganization Committee is not a part of the Illinois State Board of Education. McHenry County Reorganization Cqmmittee was created by section 3 of the 1985 School District Reorganization Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-3), and charged with the responsibility of developing a plan to reorganize the McHenry County Region’s school districts. Each educational service region had the responsibility of creating a reorganization committee and therefore the McHenry County Region Reorganization Committee is the agent for McHenry Educational Service Region as stated in section 3(a). “Within 60 days of the effective date of this act, each educational service region of the State with a population of 1,000,000 or fewer inhabitants shall create a committee for the reorganization of school districts consisting of not less than 7 public members and the regional superintendent of schools.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-3a.

[*276] There is a regional board of school trustees for that territory in each educational service region exclusive of any school district organized under Article 34 and exclusive of any school district whose school board has been given the powers of school trustees. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 6-2.) Since McHenry County Reorganization Committee was created by McHenry Educational Service Region it is therefore its agent. (Ill.

Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-3.) McHenry Educational Service Region is managed by the regional board of school trustees, a body politic which has the perpetual existence to sue or be sued. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 6-2.

McHenry County Reorganization Committee

contracted with Claimant to pay him for his services when he completed his research. The State Board of Education or the State of Illinois is not a party to the contract between McHenry County Reorganization Committee and the Claimant. Claimant’s contract action, if any, is against the Regional Board of School Trustees of McHenry County, Illinois, since it is the body politic which governs the educational service region and has the power to. sue or be sued.

The Illinois School Board of Education is designated as the State Committee which generally sets up rules that the Reorganization Committee must follow and also distributes funds to the local committees to offset the costs of reorganization studies. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 122, par. 1502-5.) The McHenry County Region Reorganization Committee had the authority to use the money allocated from the State for committee member expenses, stenographic expenses, as well as other reasonable expenses incurred by the reorganization committees. (23 Ill. Adm. Code Subtitle A, [*277] 550.300(b)(1).) The State committee has no principalagent relationship with the negotiations between a reorganization committee and a third party who contracted to provide services to the reorganization committee in order to complete its own study. There is also no principal-agent relationship between the State of Illinois and $e reorganization committee or the State of Illinois and McHenry Educational Service Region.

Wherefore, it is hereby ordered that the claim of the Claimant is dismissed with prejudice.

ORDER ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

RAUCCI, J. This cause coming on to be heard on Claimant’s petition for rehearing, it is ordered that the petition for rehearing is denied.

Official volume 42 (Containing cases in which opinions were filed and orders of dismissal entered, without opinion for: Fiscal Year 1990 – July 1, 1989–June 30, 1990)  ·  All opinions in this volume  ·  Also on CourtListener

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