Court Opinion

ID: 9709395
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:46:43.198902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:48.462927
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE FREEMAN, dissenting: The court’s decision today considerably expands the discovery rule in Illinois. The rule now excuses ignorance of law in litigation against nonattorneys. Were Contractors Adjustment Company charged with a duty to impart legal expertise, a foundation for the discovery rule would exist. But the reason for the rule’s operation in such a case is absent here. A nonattorney who undertakes, pursuant to a simple personal service contract, to claim a lien for another does not, under Illinois law, owe duties akin to those owed by an attorney. Such duties explain the discovery rule’s operation respecting time-lapsed claims like those Hermitage Corporation principally alleges. In the absence of such duties, statutory time bars must be honored. Hermitage Corporation should bear the consequence of not appreciating the legal inadequacy of the lien claim as of the time it was filed. For those reasons, I dissent. The discovery rule has, of course, been applied to "a broad spectrum” of claims to avoid time bars where plaintiffs neither knew nor should have known of time-triggering injuries. (Knox College v. Celotex Corp. (1981), 88 Ill. 2d 407, 414; see 166 Ill. 2d at 78-79.) But different reasons explain the rule’s operation with regard to different types of claims. To appreciate why the discovery rule applies to certain claims is to recognize when a statute of limitations must be honored where the reason for the rule is absent. That point is crucial, for the discovery rule runs counter to one of the very reasons why statutes of limitations exist. The reason: "to discourage delay in the bringing of claims.” See Tom Olesker’s Exciting World of Fashion, Inc. v. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 129, 132. As to any particular claim, operation of a time bar relates to protection of evidence. (Tom Olesker’s Exciting World of Fashion, Inc., 61 Ill. 2d at 132.) The discovery rule is consistent with that purpose in excusing the bar where the passage of time has not affected the ability to prove the claim. (See Rozny v. Marnul (1969), 43 Ill. 2d 54, 70.) But the discovery rule conflicts in every case with the additional (see Sutton v. Mytich (1990), 197 Ill. App. 3d 672, 677), prophylactic purpose of discouraging delay generally. Regard for that purpose calls for the rule’s cautious and selective application. Curiously, the acknowledgment of that more general purpose is omitted from the majority’s extended quotation from the passage in Nolan v. Johns-Manville Asbestos in which it appears. See 166 Ill. 2d at 85-86, quoting Nolan v. Johns-Manville Asbestos (1981), 85 Ill. 2d 161, 171. The discovery rule’s operation is usually explained by the absence of means reasonably available to the plaintiff to know of the incidence of injury. That is the reason for the rule in the post-surgery-existence-of-foreign-objects-in-the-body line of cases from which the rule sprang in Illinois. (See Rozny v. Marnul (1969), 43 Ill. 2d 54, 70-71; see, e.g., Anderson v. Wagner (1979), 79 Ill. 2d 295.) The same reason explains, for the most part, the rule’s operation in cases of misrepresentation and fraud. (See, e.g., Knox College, 88 Ill. 2d 407.) And the same reason explains why the rule obtains in cases of incremental injuries, like those involving exposure to asbestos. See, e.g., Nolan, 85 Ill. 2d 161. But simply being dispossessed of means to know of the incidence of injury is not what explains the rule’s operation in a case of legal malpractice, the type of claim analogous to the principal one made here. The discovery rule is justified in a legal malpractice suit because of the special attorney-client relationship. (See Neel v. Magana, Olney, Levy, Cathcart & Glefand (1971), 6 Cal. 3d 176, 491 P.2d 421, 98 Cal. Rptr. 837; see also Pioneer National Title Insurance Co. v. Sabo (D. Del. 1977), 432 F. Supp. 76; see generally Superior Bank FSB v. Golding (1992), 152 Ill. 2d 480.) An attorney is charged with a duty "to use skill, prudence, and diligence” common in the legal profession. (Neel, 6 Cal. 3d at 188, 491 P.2d at 428, 98 Cal. Rptr. at 844.) Given that duty, the nonattorney is presumed unable to detect "misapplication” of legal expertise: (See also Sabo, 432 F. Supp. at 81.) Therefore, the realized injury to the client, not the attorney’s misapplication of expertise, marks the point in time for measuring compliance with a statute of limitations period. "If [the client] must ascertain malpractice at the moment of its incidence, the client must hire a second professional to observe the work of the first, an expensive and impractical duplication, clearly destructive of the confidential relationship between the practitioner and his client.” (Neel, 6 Cal. 3d at 188, 491 P.2d at 428, 98 Cal. Rptr. at 844.) That is not to say that the discovery rule displaces the notion that a person should be held to appreciate the meaning of a legal document he executes. (See Annot., 10 A.L.RSth § 12 (1993).) When a document’s meaning is plain and requires no legal explanation and the client is well educated and has had the opportunity to read what he signed, no action for malpractice lies. (See Berman v. Rubin (1976), 138 Ga. App. 849, 854, 227 S.E.2d 802, 806.) The discovery rule’s operation is therefore negated. It is only when the document "requires substantive or procedural knowledge, is ambiguous, or is of certain application” that malpractice may exist and so invite application of the rule. See Berman, 138 Ga. App. at 854, 227 S.E.2d at 806. Incidentally, our appellate court understands that the discovery rule does not operate when a document’s meaning is unambiguous and appreciation of it requires no legal expertise. The issue arose in Hannigan v. Country Mutual Insurance Co. (1994), 264 Ill. App. 3d 336, 342, a case involving an insurance contract. The insured had sued her insurer for nonpayment of under-insurance coverage and refusal to arbitrate that claim. The policy required all claims for arbitration be made "within two years after the date of the accident.” (Emphasis omitted.) (Hannigan, 264 Ill. App. 3d at 342.) The insured had learned of the tortfeasor’s inadequate insurance coverage only after the two-year period had lapsed. Nevertheless, the discovery rule could not operate. The policy, the court noted, was clear. The insured had only two years from the date of an accident to demand arbitration. Thus, there was no need to determine when the insured "knew or should have known of the existence of the right to sue.” Hannigan, 264 Ill. App. 3d at 342. That brings me to the lien claim filed in this case. I should note, first, that no copy of the document is found in the record. No copy of the document was attached as an exhibit to Hermitage Corporation’s complaint, nor was a copy made a part of Contractors Adjustment Company’s motion to dismiss. The lien claim is, however, a public record, having been filed in the Cook County recorder’s office, and so judicial notice of it may be taken. See Finish Line Express, Inc. v. City of Chicago (1978), 72 Ill. 2d 131. The notice of lien, not unlike the policy provision in Hannigan, is clear to anyone able to read standard English. The words used are simple and unambiguous. Correct syntax is employed. Rules of grammar and punctuation are followed. The lien is stated in three pages. The first page specifies the type of work performed (plumbing), the date the work was completed (December 14, 1984), the total amount of the lien claimed ($92,850.08) and the general worksite (Sanctuary Condominiums). An incorporated "schedule” consisting of the remaining two pages provides further detail regarding the lien. The "schedule” lists, by unit number, 74 condominiums in which the plumbing work was actually done. The unit numbers are listed in a left-hand vertical column, one unit per line. Corresponding with that list, a middle column sets out the date the plumbing work was performed. December 14, 1984, is represented as the date the work was completed for each unit. In a third, similarly corresponding right-hand column, the lien is apportioned in equal amounts of $1,238 to each unit.1  Unlike the insurance policy provision in Hannigan, a substantive and procedural knowledge of the law of mechanics’ liens is necessary to appreciate the lien claim here. The lien claim, though clearly stated, is insufficient under existing law to create the right it purports to establish. The problem lies with the use of a so-called "blanket” lien for work performed under one contract on multiple parcels. The Mechanics Lien Act requires lien claims to be made within four months "after completion” of work. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 82, par. 7.) It is likely that work performed on any one parcel will be performed more than four months prior to "completion” of work on all and so lien rights are jeopardized. (See First Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Connelly (1983), 97 Ill. 2d 242, 247-49.) Under Schmidt v. Anderson (1911), 253 Ill. 29, 33, the date work was performed on each parcel must be stated in order to enforce a lien where labor on any other was performed more than four months before the claim was filed. The notice of lien prepared by Contractors Adjustment Company did not set out the dates the plumbing work was performed on each of the 74 condominium units. The consequence of that was realized on July 16, 1987, when the claim was judicially determined. But the injury was choate when the notice was filed on January 29, 1985. It is enough for the majority to invoke the discovery rule that the law of mechanics’ liens was too "technical and complex” for Hermitage Corporation to appreciate the injury at its incidence. (166 Ill. 2d at 79.) I do not dispute the "technical and complex” nature of the law of mechanics’ liens. And I am well aware of the equity in allowing Hermitage Corporation the chance to hold Contractors Adjustment Company responsible for ineptitude in doing the very thing it held itself out as expert to do. I disagree with the court’s decision because complexity of law — the mechanic’s lien variety or any other — cannot be reason to ignore a statutory time bar for what is, in effect, a legal malpractice claim against a nonattorney. There is an inherent problem in focusing on the "layman” status of Hermitage Corporation as rationale for the discovery rule’s operation. (See 166 Ill. 2d at 79-80.) All nonattorneys are laymen as to matters requiring legal expertise. (See Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1281 (1993) (defining "layman” as "one not belonging to some particular profession or not expert in some branch of knowledge or art”).) The complexity of law is beyond the ken of all laymen equally. That is the point of State licensure and regulation of the legal profession. Contractors Adjustment Company may have held itself out as an expert in asserting claims under the Mechanics Lien Act. But, in fact, Contractors Adjustment Company was never anything but a layman. The majority is simply wrong to inject the issue of legal expertise into its analysis. Contractors Adjustment Company can be considered no more an expert regarding the Mechanics Lien Act than Hermitage Corporation. It therefore makes no sense to excuse Hermitage Corporation’s failure to appreciate the facial defect of the lien claim in time to sue upon it. Excusing one layman’s tardy appreciation of injury because the law is too complex in favor of holding another layman responsible for injury arising from that complexity is entirely arbitrary. The more far-reaching consequence of the court’s decision is the elevation of a nonattorney’s ignorance of law to the status of legal malpractice. The relationship between Hermitage Corporation and Contractors Adjustment Company arose from a simple personal service contract. No confidential relationship is alleged in the complaint. None could exist. Illinois law simply does not regard nonattorneys who file lien claims on behalf of others as owing any duty of confidentiality. It is, again, regard for that duty that a time bar is excused in a negligence action against an attorney for services rendered a client, such as an effort to create lien rights. In a sense, the duty of confidentiality binds the client to the attorney. The discovery rule’s operation reflects that notion. The rule would permit a client to rely without reservation on the attorney’s competency in creating lien rights. The confidential relationship ensures the client’s reasonableness in doing so. If the client had to retain a second attorney to check the efficacy of the lien claim filed by the first, the initial confidential relationship would be undermined. But a personal service contract between a "client” and a nonattorney who undertakes the same task entails no duty of confidentiality which could be undermined. Furthermore, by licensing attorneys and policing the profession, this State, explicitly and implicitly, justifies a client’s reliance on an attorney’s competence to create legal rights like liens. Not so with respect to the nonattorney who purports to do the same thing. The law does not hold the nonattorney to any standard of legal expertise. In contracting with a nonattorney for services in creating a legal right such as a lien, the "client” is not similarly justified in freely relying on the nonattorney’s competence. Unfortunately, that leaves the "client” at risk of not being able to appreciate, for himself, a legal injury arising from the "legal” services in time to hold the nonattorney responsible. Such misfortune is not, however, reason enough to recognize a cause of action for legal malpractice against all nonattorneys whose contractual services are intended, but fail, to create legal rights. In roundabout fashion, that is precisely the effect of the court’s application of the discovery rule today. I cannot agree with that result. CHIEF JUSTICE BILANDIC joins in this dissent.   There appears to be an error either in stating the total lien amount or in apportioning that amount to the 74 units. The amount apportioned ($1,238) multiplied by the number of units (74) does not equal the total lien amount claimed ($92,850 (rounding off to the nearest dollar)) but a lesser amount ($91,612). The Mechanics Lien Act specifically preserves claims with such defects. (See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 82, par. 7 (providing that no lien will "be defeated to the proper amount” because of an "error or overcharging” by the claimant unless fraud is present).) But were that not the case and the discovery rule somehow implicated, I suggest no basis would exist for its operation. A miscalculation appearing on the face of a notice of lien certainly needs no legal knowledge to appreciate.