Illinois Bell Telephone Co. v. Lewis

The question: When a telephone company condemns private property, must it follow the provisions of the Telegraph and Telephone Act or must it follow the provisions of the Public Utilities Act?

Illinois Bell answers: Telegraph and Telephone Act.

Lewis responds: Public Utilities Act.

We hold: Both.

These same parties were before this court in the previous case of Lewis v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co. (1981), 98 Ill. App. 3d 1047, 425 N.E.2d 55. In Lewis, we set out the facts that led to that appeal:

“Plaintiff [Lewis] owned the fee simple title to the premises which were a strip of land 55 feet wide…