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Pecora v. County of Cook

Case Date: 06/19/2001
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-99-2284 Rel

SECOND DIVISION
June 19, 2001





No. 1-99-2284


THEODORE PECORA and,
BETTY PECORA

                         Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.

COUNTY OF COOK, ILLINOIS, a
body politic and BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS OF COOK COUNTY,

                         Defendants-Appellees.

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)		 Appeal from the
Circuit Court of
Cook County




Honorable
Sidney A. Jones, III,
Judge Presiding.


JUSTICE GORDON delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiffs Theodore and Betty Pecora (collectively "thePecoras") appeal from the judgement of the circuit court of CookCounty granting summary judgement in favor of defendants, CookCounty, Illinois and the Cook County Board of Commissioners(collectively "the county "). On appeal, the Pecoras argue thatthe circuit court erred in granting summary judgement againstthem because they had exhausted their administrative remedies;because further proceedings before the administrative agencieswould be futile and would require them to pursue multipleremedies; and because the trial court incorrectly viewed theirdeclaratory judgement action as a case in the nature ofadministrative review. The county argues that the Pecoras failedto exhaust their administrative remedies. The county furthercontends that even if the Pecoras did exhaust theiradministrative remedies, summary judgement was still properbecause the Pecoras could not prove their case at trial. Wereverse.

BACKGROUND

The instant action has been pending in and out of thecircuit court since 1981 and is almost two decades old. Whilethe record is obviously lengthy, only the details relevant tothis case need be discussed herein. Unless otherwise noted, thefacts stated in this section are not in dispute.

The subject of this litigation is a real estate tract(hereinafter referred to as "the property") of approximately 4.9acres located about 150 feet east of Wildwood Avenue on the southside of Higgins Road in unincorporated Elk Grove Township in CookCounty, Illinois. The Pecoras own the property as they havesince 1972. The property is currently vacant and is zoned R-5under the Cook County Zoning Ordinance. The R-5 district permitssingle family homes (as well as cemeteries; schools; andrecreational uses such as golf courses) with a minimum lot sizeof 10,000 square feet. Cook County Zoning Ordinance