An Illinois Appellate Court ruled in favor of a county in a lawsuit involving the county’s actions in regards to a tree trimming incident involving neighbors in Lugo v. Woodford County.
Two neighboring property owners had ongoing issues with each other which were serious enough to cause one neighbor to seek a no-stalking, no contact order from the other neighbor. While his petition for a protective order was pending, the petitioning neighbor hired a tree trimmer to trim branches of a tree on his neighbor’s property that were overhanging onto his property. Because of the ongoing neighbor problems, the tree trimmer called the county sheriff to have a deputy present while the work was being done. The deputy informed the tree-owning neighbor that he could view and film the work from his own property, but could not trespass onto the petitioning neighbor’s property or stage himself in front of the property while the work was proceeding.
The tree-owning neighbor filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the deputy and county violated his civil rights in restricting his activities and location while the tree was being trimmed. The district court ruled in favor of the county, and the court of appeals upheld that ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take on his appeal.
After he lost his federal lawsuit, he filed a lawsuit in state court raising many of the same claims, as well as arguing that the county was continuing to violate constitutional rights based on race and ethnicity. The circuit court dismissed his case, finding that it was barred by “res judicata” which prohibits someone from filing a second lawsuit about issues that were already litigated in court. He appealed.
On appeal, the Illinois Appellate Court agreed that the tree-owning neighbor’s state court case was barred because of the final ruling in the federal court. At the end of the opinion, the Appellate Court provides its opinion on the neighbor’s multiple lawsuits and appeals regarding a tree-trimming incident, as follows:
During his address at the Virginia Bar Association’s Law Day celebration in
1962, then-attorney general Robert F. Kennedy said, “The glory of justice and the majesty of law
are created not just by the Constitution—nor by the courts—nor by the officers of the law—nor
by the lawyers—but by the men and women who constitute our society—who are the protectors
of the law as they are themselves protected by the law.” A civil suit in federal district court, the
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States
Supreme Court. A civil suit in the state circuit court, this appeal to the Fourth District, and
probably further. All because some tree branches needed trimming. It is doubtful this is what
Kennedy had in mind.