OPINION Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 The plaintiffs, Wayne Michael, Alan Hohman and Craig Kluemke, filed a retaliatory discharge lawsuit against the defendant, Precision Alliance Group, LLC, alleging they were discharged in retaliation for reporting defendant to the State of Illinois for shipping underweight product. Following a bench trial, the circuit court of Washington County entered judgment in favor of defendant. The appellate court reversed...
OPINION Justice FREEMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 The Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) filed a complaint against respondent, John P. Edmonds, charging him with professional misconduct. The Hearing Board found that respondent, as trustee of a charitable trust, breached his fiduciary duty to various entities and individuals. The Hearing Board also found that respondent engaged in dishonest conduct with respect to the...
OPINION Chief Justice GARMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 Plaintiff Joseph Pusateri filed a complaint under the False Claims Act 1 alleging defendant Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company (PG) used falsified gas leak response records to justify a fraudulently inflated natural gas rate before the Illinois Commerce Commission (Commission). As a customer, the State of Illinois would have paid such fraudulently inflated rates, making PG liable under the False Claims...
OPINION PER CURIAM : 1 In this case, two Justices of this Court have recused themselves and the remaining members of the Court are divided so that it is not possible to secure the constitutionally required concurrence of four judges for a decision (see Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, 3). Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed. The effect of this dismissal is the same as an affirmance by an equally divided court of the decision under review but is of no precedential value. See Perlman v. First...
OPINION Justice THEIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 The circuit court of Lake County granted summary judgment to plaintiff, Lake County Grading Company, LLC on its third-party beneficiary breach of contract claims against defendant, Village of Antioch (Village). The appellate court affirmed, holding that the Village breached the subject contracts by violating section 1 of the Public Construction Bond Act (Bond Act) (30 ILCS 550/1 (West 2008)). 2013 IL App (2d) 120474,...
OPINION Justice KILBRIDE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 At issue in this appeal is the application of the civil remedies provisions of section 13(A) of the Illinois Securities Law of 1953 (Illinois Securities Law) (815 ILCS 5/1 et seq. (West 2010)) in calculating damages in a legal malpractice action. 2 Plaintiffs, Morton and Adrienne Goldfine, brought a legal malpractice action against defendant law firm, Barack, Ferrazzano, Kirschbaum & Perlman, and several of...
OPINION Justice THEIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 Plaintiff, Virginia Bruns, filed a negligence action in Marion County against defendant, the City of Centralia (City), after she tripped and fell on an uneven sidewalk, sustaining personal injuries. The City moved for summary judgment, arguing that the defect was "open and obvious," and the City was under no duty to protect plaintiff from the defective sidewalk. Plaintiff argued that the "distraction exception"...
OPINION Justice FREEMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 The Illinois Department of Public Health (Department) determined that Mary Slepicka was subject to involuntary transfer or discharge from Holy Family Villa, the nursing home in which she resided. Slepicka sought administrative review of the Department's decision in the circuit court of Sangamon County. Holy Family Villa moved to dismiss or transfer the action because it had not been filed in the proper venue,...
1 OPINION Justice THOMAS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 2 Plaintiff, Nationwide Financial, LP (Nationwide), filed suit against defendants, Michael Pobuda and Laura Pobuda, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Pobudas' use of a certain strip of land owned by Nationwide amounted to a trespass. The Pobudas counterclaimed, alleging, among other things, that they enjoyed a prescriptive easement to travel over the disputed land. The parties filed cross-motions for...
OPINION Justice FREEMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 At issue in this appeal is the validity of Public Act 97-695 (eff. July 1, 2012), which amended section 10 of the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971 (Group Insurance Act) (5 ILCS 375/10 (West 2012)) by eliminating the statutory standards for the State's contributions to health insurance premiums for members of three of the State's retirement systems. In place of those standards, Public Act 97-695 requires...
OPINION Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 This case presents a question regarding the termination of pension benefits being received by defendant Jon Burge, a former Chicago police supervisor who was convicted of committing perjury in a civil lawsuit after he denied having any knowledge of suspects being tortured in the police unit under his command. What is at issue, however, is not whether Burge, or any similarly situated police officer, is legally...
OPINION Justice KILBRIDE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 This appeal asks whether the State has standing in a juvenile neglect proceeding (705 ILCS 405/1-1 et seq. (West 2012)) to challenge the paternity of a man, Alfred C., who signed a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity under the Illinois Parentage Act of 1984 (750 ILCS 45/1 et seq. (West 2012)). Four days after the birth of the minor, N.C., the State filed a juvenile neglect petition seeking to have N.C....
OPINION Justice FREEMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 At issue in this appeal is the scope of an attorney's duty in an action brought pursuant to the Wrongful Death Act (740 ILCS 180/0.01 et seq. (West 2012)). Plaintiff, the estate of Perry C. Powell, filed claims for legal malpractice against several attorneys and their law firms as a result of the attorneys' conduct in handling a wrongful death action in which Powell was a beneficiary. The circuit court of Cook...
OPINION JUSTICE THEIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 This appeal arises out of a forcible entry and detainer action filed by a condominium association against one of its unit owners based on unpaid assessments. At issue is whether an association's purported failure to repair or maintain the common elements is germane to the proceeding, and thus may be raised by the unit owner in defense of the forcible action. We hold that it is not germane to the forcible proceeding,...
OPINION Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 This appeal presents the following question: When a federal district court sitting in a sister state makes a prediction under Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 , 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938), that the supreme court of that state would resolve a legal issue in a way that is at odds with Illinois law, does that prediction, in itself, establish an actual conflict between the two states' laws for purposes...
OPINION Justice KARMEIER delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 The issue on this appeal is whether the office of the State's Attorney of Kendall County is exempt from the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq. (West 2010)) on the grounds that the State's Attorney's office is part of the judicial branch of Illinois government and therefore beyond the reach of the FOIA. The circuit court answered this question in the...
OPINION Justice THEIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 This appeal arises out of a decision by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, which affirmed the decision of the deputy local liquor control commissioner of the City of Peoria (Local Commissioner) to revoke the liquor license of WISAM 1, Inc., doing business as Sheridan Liquors (Sheridan Liquors). The circuit and appellate courts affirmed the decision on administrative review. 2013 IL App (3d) 110607-U, 2013 WL...
OPINION Justice KARMEIER delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 Due to brain damage from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his face, defendant, Terris E. Stahl, cannot remember any of the events surrounding the incidents leading to home invasion (720 ILCS 5/12-11(a)(4) (West 2010)) and aggravated unlawful restraint (720 ILCS 5/10-3.1(a) (West 2010)) charges against him. The trial court found defendant unfit to stand trial. Later, after a discharge hearing, he was found "not...
OPINION Justice FREEMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 In March 2011 a jury found respondent Justin Fields to be a sexually violent person (SVP) under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act (SVP Act or the Act) (725 ILCS 207/1 et seq. (West 2012)). After the circuit court of Cook County entered judgment, respondent requested (1) a date for a dispositional hearing, and (2) a pre-hearing evaluation. In denying respondent's requests, the court determined it already...
OPINION Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. 1 This matter comes before us on direct appeal from a circuit court of Cook County judgment finding section 607(e) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Marriage Act) (750 ILCS 5/607(e) (West (2010))) unconstitutional on its face and as applied to petitioner, Donald B. Section 607(e) prohibits a non-custodial parent who has been convicted of a sexual offense perpetrated on a victim less than 18...
