CHICAGO - Plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit against the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority said yesterday they will file a separate suit against all authority board members and executives for illegally spending toll money, after a Cook County Circuit Court judge denied their request to expand the current lawsuit to include the motion to sue.
Judge Stephen Schiller sided with tollway officials, ruling that adding a motion to personally sue would "disrupt" the 1995 lawsuit filed by three Chicago-area businessmen, and cause the already unwieldy case to "grow like a weed."
The plaintiffs have already won a favorable ruling in their case. In late May, Schiller ruled that the 40-year-old authority had violated the state constitution, which requires all state agencies to get legislative consent to spend money.
The judge gave the authority until Dec. 15 to get its budget approved, or otherwise cease operations. Two Illinois House committees have jointly held one meeting so far on the matter.
Plaintiffs' attorney Myron Cherry argued that because the authority has technically been found to be spending money in violation of the constitution, top tollway executives ought to pay it back. Cherry filed his motion to sue in late June.
"The fact that the tollway is successful in not being sued on Wednesday only means it will be successfully sued on Thursday," he said. "It's a meaningless decision."
Cherry said the new lawsuit will be filed in Cook County Circuit Court this week. He said he's displeased with the judge's ruling because he believes another judge will just consolidate the lawsuits when the new case is heard.
Named in the June petition to expand the lawsuit were several high- profile Illinois officials who are members of the tollway's board of directors: Gov. Jim Edgar, James Banks, Roger Claar, William Dugan, Paula Fasseas, Thomas Fitzgibbon, Robert Neal, Arthur Philip, Robert Turner, and Kirk Brown.
Also named were authority chairman Julian D'Esposito, authority executive director Ralph Wehner, chief financial officer Nicholas Jannite, and Controller Mark Swidergal.
