Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1952 [PAGE 567]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[April 19

taken at this time on the question of employment of attorneys, since they have already been retained by the Indiana and Illinois executors. There is a possibility that the Attorney General of Illinois may appear in the legal proceedings to represent the interests of the unknown beneficiaries of the charitable trust which would be established under the will. I recommend that the Board authorize a contribution of $400 toward the expenses of this litigation.

On motion of Mr. Hickman, this payment was authorized.

C.P.A. LITIGATION

(29) The Circuit Court of Cook County in the case of Chatkin et al. v. University of Illinois et al. has declared that the provision for the examination in Section 4(b) of the Accountancy Act of 1943, as amended, does not meet constitutional requirements and is therefore void. Under this provision of the law the University issued certificates of Certified Public Accountant to applicants who have held unrevoked certificates of registration as Public Accountant (issued by the Department of Registration and Education under "An Act to afford protection to the public by prescribing and regulating the practice of public accounting by registration," approved July 7, 1927, as amended) for at least five years, who have been engaged in the practice of public accounting in Illinois for at least five years, and who successfully passed a written or oral examination given by a special board of five examiners appointed by the University with the approval of the Department of Registration and Education. Approximately 133 C.P.A. certificates have been issued by the University since 1943 under the section held unconstitutional in this case. The suit was defended by Mr. Ralph F. Huck, representing the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants, Mr. William C. Wines for the Attorney General, representing the Department of Registration and Education, Mr. Herbert Stoffels, representing the Public Accountants Association of Illinois, and Professor W. E. Britton, representing the University. The two professional organizations are seeking legislation to remedy the defects in the statute and to preserve the C.P.A. certificates already issued under the void section. The court decision does not affect other sections of the Accountancy Act under which the University of Illinois has been issuing C.P.A. certificates since 1903. These include the successful candidates in the standard C.P.A. examinations given in May and November of each year, applicants who hold C.P.A. certificates issued on the basis of written examinations by other states, territories, and the District of Columbia and who can meet certain educational requirements specified by law, and applicants who hold unrevoked certificates of registration of Public Accountant in Illinois issued on the basis of the regular semi-annual written examination by the Department of Registration and Education under the Public Accounting Act of 1927, provided such candidates applied for the same within one year following the passage of the Accountancy Act of 1043. Applicants in this last category were not required to pass any further examination. Section 4(b), which has now been declared unconstitutional, provides that it would be operative only in cases of candidates who made application ten years following the Act of 1943.

This report was received for record. The Secretary of the Board reports that in view of the decision of the Circuit Court of Cook County in the case of Chatkin et al. v. University of Illinois et al., holding that the provision for the examination in Section 4(b) in the Accountancy Act of 1943 does not meet constitutional requirements and is void, the issuance of C.P.A. certificates to the following candidates who were awarded the same by the Board of Trustees has been withheld:

BERNARD BLUM LEE ROY DEHLER IRVING FISCHEL KRAMER GEORGE C. MATTRAN DANIEL M. SIMON TIMOTHY JOSEPH SULLIVAN