City of Rock Falls v. Aims Industrial Services, LLC

Plaintiff filed a petition for injunctive relief seeking to enforce a provision of its municipal code that the defendant was continuously violating. The trial court found that the defendant was in violation with the code, but ruled in the defendant’s favor after balancing the equities and finding that enforcing the rule would be an undue imposition on the defendant. The supreme court reversed the trial court, holding that where the ordinance explicitly allowed for injunctive relief the only question to be determined by the trial court was whether the city met its burden of proving a continuous violation and that the trial court had no discretion to balance the equities. (THEIS, NEVILLE, OVERSTREET, HOLDER WHITE, ROCHFORD, and O’BRIEN, concurring)