Leehy v. City of Carbondale

Plaintiffs, individually and on behalf of similarly situated individuals, appealed from the trial court’s denial of their complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that the City of Carbondale’s ordinance authorizing fees related to driving infractions, which resulted in vehicles being towed, was facially unconstitutional. The appellate court affirmed, finding that the trial court’s calculation of minimum cost for an ordinance violation was not against the manifest weight of the evidence, that the trial court did not err when it found that the amounts received by the city pursuant to the statutory remittance were not relevant in determining whether the ordinance fees were reasonable, and that plaintiffs did not meet their burden of showing that there was a lack of any reasonable relation between the fee and the cost of the service. (BOIE and MOORE, concurring)