Stop Northpoint, LLC v. City of Joliet

Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the City of Joliet from annexing and developing a proposed industrial business park, alleging that it would constitute a public and private nuisance and that the pre-annexation agreement was null and void. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss on the basis that the complaint did not state a valid cause of action. The appellate court affirmed in part and reversed in part, finding that plaintiffs properly pled a cause of action for private nuisance as to some of the plaintiffs and that the plaintiffs adequately stated a claim for common-law public nuisance. The appellate court affirmed dismissal of the count of the complaint seeking to invalidate the pre-annexation agreement on the basis that the allegation that the contract was vague did not qualify as an illegal or unauthorized act of a public body. The appellate court also found that the trial court properly dismissed a count of the complaint alleging a violation of the Open Meetings Act. (BRENNAN and ALBRECHT, concurring)