Supreme Court of Illinois Decisions 2012

Justia Opinion Summary: The railroad was originally sued under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act in 2002 in Mississippi, where Fennell lived and worked and was allegedly exposed to asbestos. He had also worked for the railroad in Louisiana.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff (ex-wife) and her parents sought damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Defendant is a psychiatrist who was court-appointed to make recommendations in connection with plaintiff’s custody…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, a mortgage was entered into as to property in Naperville. The loan was eventually sold to EMC, which obtained a judgment of foreclosure in 2009. The debtor’s request to have the 2009 foreclosure judgment vacated…

Justia Opinion Summary: The parties married in 1977, had three children, and started marriage dissolution proceedings in 2000. In 2001, the circuit court entered judgment of dissolution, reserving ancillary issues. In 2004 the court again…

Justia Opinion Summary: Chicago taxi drivers filed a class action in 2000 concerning how they received traffic tickets. The trial court certified the class in 2002 and, in 2005, issued partial summary judgment that a ticket should be issued to…

Justia Opinion Summary: The plaintiff was injured in a 2003 automobile accident. He was admitted to Edward Hospital and, allegedly, was operated on without a sufficient period of fasting. During surgery he vomited and aspirated vomit into his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Hernandez developed Parkinson’s disease, allegedly as the result of his exposure to chemicals at Central Steel, where he worked from 1968 to 1995. From 1995 to 1996, Hernandez was represented by a firm that filed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant entered a police station and reported that he had strangled his wife to death. Although there had been an argument and a struggle, he claimed that the death was an accident. At trial, defense counsel argued…

Justia Opinion Summary: Tate was convicted for a 2001 fatal shooting. Four eyewitnesses identified him. The appellate court affirmed. Tate retained counsel and filed a post-conviction petition, attaching affidavits of alibi witnesses and of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Stanbridge served time for aggravated criminal sex abuse concerning a 1999 Adams County; Lieberman was convicted of multiple Cook County counts of rape in 1980. Both were committed to the Department of Human Services…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty in 2006 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor and received a 14-year term. He had originally been indicted for offenses involving several minor victims between 1995 and 1998. Some charges…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs are minority limited partners in Urban Shopping Centers, L.P., in which defendants acquired a majority interest in 2002. Plaintiffs allege breach of fiduciary and contractual duties, claiming that, pursuant to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of committing multiple sex offenses concerning his 14-year-old daughter in 2007 and 2008. The convictions were for two counts of criminal sexual assault, one count of criminal transmission of HIV,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Citizens, unhappy with how public education is funded in Illinois, sought a declaratory judgment, alleging that the funding system requires taxpayers in school districts with low property values to pay property taxes to…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Rosenwinkels purchased 160 acres in Kendall County in 1991 and began cattle operations in 1992. Across the road was a farm house, at least 100 years old; in 1991, the tenant moved out and the house was vacant. In…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2003, the doctor was charged by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation with violating the Illinois Medical Practice Act in connection with electro-convulsive shock treatment of a patient.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, the younger child, a boy aged 2½ years, was brought to the emergency room by his mother. He had second-degree burns on his face. His mother had found him, injured, at the home of her boyfriend, who had been…

Justia Opinion Summary: A sex offender pled guilty to criminal sexual assault, to failing to register as a sex offender, and to subsequently failing to register a change of address. A 12-year sentence was imposed for the assault; different…

Justia Opinion Summary: Chicago issued plaintiff, Downtown Disposal, notices for violating ordinances pertaining to dumpsters and requiring Downtown Disposal to appear at administrative hearings on various dates. When Downtown Disposal failed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Murdock, then 16, was convicted in 2001 of first degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. The conviction was affirmed. Defendant filed a post-conviction petition alleging trial counsel was ineffective for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Pielet Brothers Scrap Iron and Metal, was founded Arthur Pielet and his brothers shortly after World War II. Arthur sold his interest to his sons in 1986 through an agreement providing for a lifetime payment to him of a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, in 1999 and 2000, marketed and sold to them investments, known as the 1999 Digital Options Strategy and the 2000 COINS Strategy, which were promoted as producing profits…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault on an eight-year-old girl, at his mother’s home for babysitting, on two dates. His confession was admitted into evidence; the girl gave…

Justia Opinion Summary: Lawlor worked for NA, selling corporate promotional items. In 2005, she began working for a competitor. NA’s attorney, investigating whether she had violated a noncompetition agreement, retained a private investigating…

Justia Opinion Summary: A woman, attending a class at a Chicago Park District fieldhouse, fell while attempting to step over a pile of snow that had collected at the edge of the parking lot during plowing. She fractured her femur and had…

Justia Opinion Summary: When he was 15 years old, Geiger testified for the state at the trial of a fellow gang member for a 1999 double murder. A codefendant in that case was retried in 2008, and, as to him, Geiger refused to testify, claiming…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2001, Keeley was acting as general contractor for reconstruction of a bridge. Three Keeley employees were injured in the collapse of a concrete I-beam used to support the bridge deck on which they were standing. They…

Justia Opinion Summary: An Illinois driver alleged that she was injured in an accident with an uninsured motorist in Wisconsin in 2007. In Illinois proceedings her insurer, Country Preferred, sought a declaration of noncoverage and she…

Justia Opinion Summary: S.B., 14 years old, and a four-year-old girl played a game; both got undressed. S.B. was charged as a juvenile with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Evidence indicated that he suffered mild retardation and functioned as…

Justia Opinion Summary: Wife suffered brain damage after a serious car accident in 1997 and became totally disabled. Husband became unable to care for her by 2004, due to his own Parkinson’s disease. Wife went to Ohio to live with her daughter,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with sex offenses against his wife’s daughter in Henry County. While still married, he had moved in with another woman in Rock Island County and was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1994 Sessions created a trust for his personal benefit, with a "spendthrift" provision prohibiting use of trust assets to pay creditors. In 1995, he irrevocably promised $1.5 million to Rush Medical Center for a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was 12 years old when, in 2003, his left foot was severed above the toes when he attempted to jump onto a freight train that was moving by the parking lot of an apartment building in Chicago Ridge. The track…

Justia Opinion Summary: Patrick Engineering signed a 2007 contract with the City of Naperville for work on a stormwater management system. Some work was done and some payments were made, but the parties fell into a dispute over “additional…

Justia Opinion Summary: Gott was a resident of Odin Healthcare where she died, on January 31, 2006. Her estate brought a survival action under the Nursing Home Care Act and the Wrongful Death Act, claiming that as a result of violations of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The parties, married in California, moved to Illinois in 2004, and have three minor children. In 2005, husband filed a petition for dissolution of marriage and, in 2006, the parties signed a joint parenting agreement…

Justia Opinion Summary: Earls filed nomination papers for alderman of Chicago’s 28th Ward on November 22, 2010, for an election to take place on February 22, 2011. An objector complained to the board of election commissioners that Earls and her…

Justia Opinion Summary: Parents of adopted sons, Austin, 16, and Ricky, 15, retained counsel to represent both. Each was charged with misdemeanor criminal sexual abuse of other boys under foster care in the household. After a joint bench…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, injured at work, filed a product liability complaint, identifying himself as “Juan Ortiz,” the name he used at work. Plaintiff filed a first amended complaint, naming additional defendants, identifying himself…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs were sexually abused by their teacher, White, at an Urbana school. Before working in Urbana, White was a teacher in the McLean County school district. Plaintiffs filed suit against White, Urbana, individual…

Justia Opinion Summary: Hackett was charged with aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, 625 ILCS 5/11-501(a)(2), (d)(1)(A), and aggravated driving while license revoked, 625 ILCS 5/6-303(d-3). He moved to quash arrest and suppress…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2004 an ambulance, answering an emergency call, drove through a stop sign and was hit by a passenger vehicle that had the stop sign in its favor. The injured driver of the passenger car sued the ambulance driver and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a man in his early thirties, had consensual sexual relations with a girl he knew was 17 years old. He took pictures of the activity with his cell phone. The pictures were found by the girl's mother, who…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and defendant, both women, met in 2005 through a chatroom connected with a television series. Defendant, in Illinois, used her own name and aliases to communicate with plaintiff, in Los Angeles. One alias was…

Justia Opinion Summary: The parties, who had twin children, divorced in 2007, while husband was unemployed. The issue of child support was reserved. The husband lived off assets that had been awarded to him as part of the marital estate,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The driver pled guilty to DUI in 2009. Although the Illinois Vehicle Code and the Unified Code of Corrections provide that a fourth DUI conviction is a nonprobational Class 2 felony, the driver, who had three prior DUIs,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, convicted of armed robbery while armed with a firearm and home invasion while armed with a firearm, Class X offenses, received concurrent terms of 25 years’ imprisonment. Both crimes had initial sentencing…

Justia Opinion Summary: While defendant was in custody on another matter, he became a suspect in a fatal shooting. Another inmate told police that he thought he could get the defendant to make incriminating statements concerning that homicide.…

Justia Opinion Summary: A Spanish speaking defendant, represented by counsel and accompanied by an interpreter, pled guilty to sexual assault of a child. Supreme Court Rule 604(d) states: "No appeal from a … plea of guilty shall be taken unless…

Justia Opinion Summary: A woman standing at a window inside a building was fatally shot. Gang members intended to shoot the first rival gang member to come out. Defendant, then age 15, told police that fellow gang members, closer to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, following expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, Cook County enacted the Blair Holt Assault Weapons Ban. The law prohibits possession of "assault weapons," defined by characteristics, and large-capacity…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007 plaintiff died, a few months after filing a complaint, alleging exposure to asbestos brought home from work on her husband’s clothes and body between 1958 and 1964. The defense argued that no duty was owed to a…

Justia Opinion Summary: At the February 2010 primary, there was no name printed on the Republican ballot for the office of member of the St. Clair County board of review, and no candidate was nominated as a write-in. In March, the Republican…

Justia Opinion Summary: At trial for a 2004 shooting, defendant testified to self-defense, but was impeached by introduction of earlier convictions for aggravated battery with a firearm and possession of a controlled substance. Defendant was…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, a woman was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with defendant. At trial, he did not testify, but the jury heard the testimony of a detective to whom he had made statements and heard audio tapes of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with armed robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated vehicular hijacking "while armed with a dangerous weapon, to wit: a firearm," 720 ILCS 5/18-2(a); 18-4(a); 10-2-A. Although the crimes were…

Justia Opinion Summary: Firefighters, who suffered career-ending injuries during required training exercises, obtained line-of-duty disability pensions and sought continuing health coverage under the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act, 820…

Justia Opinion Summary: A deputy observed a woman, whose license he believed was suspended, driving, and followed her home. After confirming that her license was suspended, he attempted to effect a traffic stop, but she went inside her home.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1991, at age 16 years, defendant pled guilty to first degree murder in exchange for a recommendation of a 50-year sentence. He knew that the maximum was 60 years. He had previously been adjudicated delinquent and…

Justia Opinion Summary: In summer 2010, due to budget deficits, the board laid off 1,289 teachers. Laid-off teachers were not given preference for positions available in the district, nor were all vacancies posted on the website. In August,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a citizens' organization, filed suit alleging violations of the Surface Coal Mining Land Conservation and Reclamation Act, 225 ILCS 720/8.05(a), and the Water Use Act, 525 ILCS 45/1 resulting from a coal mine…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. On appeal, defendant contended that the trial court violated his right to confront witnesses against him when it permitted the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007, defendant filed a petition seeking leave to file a second successive post-conviction petition challenging his 1983 convictions for rape and deviate sexual assault. He alleged that newly discovered evidence…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a school district, leased portable classrooms from plaintiff under contracts including penalties for early cancellation or default. Under the Downstate School Finance Authority for Elementary Districts Law…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a minor accident, the drivers' friends and relatives gathered, arguments ensued, and shots were fired. One victim survived; another died. Recovered bullets came from the same gun. There was testimony about…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was stopped for driving on a suspended license, got out of his car, and was searched. An officer testified that he found a plastic bag containing a white powdery substance in defendant's pocket. Another officer…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, hired as a public school basketball coach in 1999, and made athletic director in 2003, was fired as coach in 2008, following a campaign based on his allegedly abusive and bullying style of coaching. He filed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty in 2007 to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and received a 20-year sentence. He challenged fines and fees imposed, including a $250 public defender fee. The Code of Criminal Procedure,…

Justia Opinion Summary: A jury awarded more than $20 million for the death of three persons in a 2002 collision between a car and a tractor-trailer. Original defendants included the truck driver, his employer, the owner of the load being…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was living with the mother of a developmentally disabled 17-year-old. He sexually assaulted her, but she did not immediately report it. He was convicted and received a 28-year sentence. On appeal, defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: The attorney, admitted to practice in Illinois in 1969, was the subject of a 2004 Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission complaint following convictions relating to driving under the influence of…