People ex rel. Wordell v. City of Chicago

The plaintiffs, Robert and Lillian Wordell, owned two adjoining lots in the City of Chicago, Illinois, which they divided into three lots. They applied for a building permit from the City of Chicago to construct a house on one of the lots resulting from this division. The city, through its commissioner of buildings, Joseph T. Fitzgerald, denied the permit. The plaintiffs petitioned the circuit court of Cook County for a writ of mandamus to compel issuance of the permit. The trial court granted the writ. The defendants, the city and the commissioner, contend that because the division of the…