Peeples v. The Village of Johnsburg 

Defendant Village passed ordinance establishing a special service area in order to create a wastewater treatment system and facility. Plaintiff Objectors submitted petition containing signatures of owners of record and electors in the special service area who opposed the proposal. Property Tax Code provides that if a petition signed by at least 51% of the electors residing within special service area and by at least 51% of owners of record of land included within its boundaries file petition objecting, then special service area shall not be created. After bench trial, court found that Objectors had collected requisite number of signatures. Multiple owners of property, whether individual or institutional, should each be counted as "owners of record" to determine total number. As to property owned by a living trust, the Court erred in counting as valid the signature of a beneficiary, who was the wife of the trustee; thus, that signature should be excluded, so that total number of signatures collected was 618, which was less than the requisite 619 signatures, given that total number of owners of record was 1216.