In Coldwater v. Village of Elwood, an appellate court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against the Village claiming that the Village’s annexation of property was invalid because the legal description included with the annexation ordinance was incorrect. The plaintiff had filed a lawsuit to nullify a corrected version of the annexation ordinance. The Village filed a motion to dismiss, claiming the lawsuit was filed too late because it was not within the one year statute of limitations in the Illinois Municipal Code (65 ILCS 5/7-1-46). The trial court agreed, and dismissed the case, but certified a question to the appellate court.
The certified question brought to the appellate court was whether section 7-1-46 bars the parties to an annexation from correcting errors in the legal description of an annexed property after the one year statute of limitations has expired. The appellate court said yes, meaning that the plaintiffs were barred from challenging the validity of the annexation after the one year had expired.