Billboard company wins permit fight with City of Chicago

In 2016, the Chicago City Council passed ordinances requiring the issuance of permits to billboard operator Image Media Advertising for signs along the Kennedy Expressway. City officials subsequently refused to honor the ordinances, and the City Council later passed an ordinance purporting to repeal the earlier ordinances approving the permits. Gair Eberhard filed a complaint in federal court in Chicago alleging that the City’s actions amounted to a taking of private property under the Fifth Amendment and a violation of due process and deprived its client of vested property rights under Illinois law. The complaint sought damages, injunctive and mandamus relief. After a year and a half of contentious litigation, the City settled and issued the two permits to Image Media.