Court Opinion

ID: 9863346
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 03:53:51.320511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:41:43.488678
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SCHMIDT, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I concur with the majority’s conclusion that the public policy favoring adjudication of controversies on the merits is not an appropriate factor for consideration in objectively determining whether plaintiff exercised reasonable diligence to obtain service on defendants. I further agree that plaintiffs failure to issue summons for more than one year after the expiration of the statute of limitations, without any explanation for failing to do so earlier, constitutes a lack of due diligence as a matter of law and, therefore, Pentair must be dismissed with prejudice under Supreme Court Rule 103(b). However, the trial court abused its discretion with respect to Lincoln Automotive and I, therefore, dissent from the majority’s finding to the contrary. The most obvious abuse of discretion by the trial court with respect to Lincoln was to apply the wrong standard. See People v. Ortega, 209 Ill. 2d 354, 808 N.E.2d 496 (2004). The majority ignores this aspect of the court’s exercise of its discretion. It is clear from the record that the trial court gave great weight to the public policy in favor of trying a case on its merits when deciding this motion. This is evidenced by both its comments and the certified question. If the trial judge did not find this dispositive to the exercise of his discretion, why would he certify the question? It is undisputed on appeal that in making its ruling, the trial court stated it understood the arguments raised by the parties and that Supreme Court Rule 103(b) and its interpretative case law supported defendant’s position, but expressed its preference that controversies be decided on the merits rather than on the basis of lack of due diligence in obtaining service of process. Our supreme court has pointed out that there is also public policy behind the adoption of Supreme Court Rule 103(b): to protect against unreasonable delay in the service of process and to prevent the circumvention of the statute of limitations. Segal v. Sacco, 136 Ill. 2d 282, 555 N.E.2d 719 (1990). In Segal, our supreme court explained that the length of time is not the only factor a court should consider when ruling on a Rule 103(b) motion. Rather, a court must consider the passages of time in relation to all the other facts and circumstances of each case individually. The supreme court discussed various factors that a court may consider in determining whether to allow or deny a Rule 103(b) motion, including, but not limited to: (1) the length of time used to obtain service of process; (2) the activities of plaintiff; (3) plaintiff’s knowledge of defendant’s location; (4) the ease with which defendant’s whereabouts could have been ascertained; (5) actual knowledge on the part of defendant of the pendency of the action as a result of ineffective service; (6) special circumstances that would affect plaintiffs efforts; and (7) actual service upon the defendant. Segal, 136 Ill. 2d at 286-87. On what facts could the trial court determine that plaintiff exercised due diligence in service on Lincoln Automotive after the running of the statute of limitations? The initial summons on Lincoln was issued more than four months after the expiration of the statute of limitations with absolutely no explanation for this delay. How can a trial court find that plaintiff acted diligently when plaintiff offered no explanation for the 41/2-month delay in issuing summons against Lincoln after the expiration of the statute of limitations? That alone should end the discussion. However, the first alias summons was issued approximately eight months after the return of service on the initial summons with only the explanation that there had been a change of counsel. It was never explained exactly when counsel was substituted. The majority states that the first summons issued to Lincoln “was returned with the apparently misleading information that Lincoln was no longer located at the Golden Valley address.” 403 Ill. App. 3d at 1044. This statement is in itself misleading. The unserved summons was returned with the notation: “Return-Moved; Lincoln Automotive is no longer owned by Pentair. Apossibble [sic] phone number is #866-236-0044. May also be known as Century Mfg.” There is no suggestion that this was false. When service was attempted again eight months later at the same address, someone at Pentair apparently determined that Pentair owned Lincoln at the time alleged in the complaint and voluntarily accepted service on behalf of Lincoln, which was not located at that address. There was nothing misleading about the statement contained on the returned summons. Let us look at the other side of this coin. What happens when a defendant is defaulted and then comes to court with a section 2 — 1301(e) motion to vacate a default judgment? Note that a section 2 — 1301(e) motion must be filed within 30 days of a default. After that, we move to section 2 — 1401. In the recent case of Jacobo v. Vandervere, 401 Ill. App. 3d 712 (2010), the appellate court affirmed refusal to vacate a default judgment entered in favor of plaintiff. The basic facts were as follows: Plaintiff filed her complaint on June 8, 2008, and personally served defendant with summons on June 27, 2008. A return date of July 16, 2008, was continued to July 23, 2008. When defendant failed to appear on July 23, the court entered a default order and the case was continued to August 6, 2008, for prove-up. Defendant did not appear on August 6, 2008, and following a prove-up, a default judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff in the amount of $10,219. Twenty days after the default judgment was entered and only two months after being served with summons, defendant filed a motion to vacate the default judgment. The trial court found that defendant failed to establish any good cause for her failure to appear and therefore denied the motion to vacate, noting the defendant failed to establish that she “had any valid reason for ignoring the three initial court dates and for taking no action from June 27, 2008[,] until August 26, 2008.” Jacobo v. Vandervere, 401 Ill. App. 3d at 714 (2010); see also Domingo v. Guarino, 402 Ill. App. 3d 690 (2010). The appellate court found that the proper standard of review was abuse of discretion and found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to vacate the default judgment because defendant had done nothing for two months after being served and provided no explanation for the inaction during those two months. How could any reasonable person agree with both of these decisions? In one case, a defendant does nothing for two months and is defaulted. In another case, a plaintiff does nothing for over four months without any explanation and is not “defaulted.” The majority has a good argument that this discussion is irrelevant to our decision here. I add this to point out that reasonable people could conclude that there is a double standard in the way our courts evaluate the diligence of plaintiffs and defendants when deciding whether to dispose of a case on something other than the merits. I recognize that different trial judges will exercise their discretion in different ways. However, there must be some objectivity. I would answer the second half of the certified question in the affirmative, finding an abuse of discretion by the trial court in using the wrong standard to make its decision. People v. Ortega, 209 Ill. 2d 354, 360 (2004). It is also my view that doing nothing for four months with absolutely no excuse and after filing a lawsuit on the eve of the expiration of the statute of limitations constitutes a lack of due diligence as a matter of law. This is even more true here where plaintiff was given an opportunity to explain the inaction for that period and offered nothing. Since plaintiff offered no facts upon which the court could find due diligence, the trial court’s decision to the contrary should be reversed as a matter of law. The majority offers the legal maxim that we may affirm the judgment of the trial court on any basis in the record regardless of whether the trial court’s reasoning was correct. 403 Ill. App. 3d at 1044. This is certainly true where the trial court’s ruling below was correct as a matter of law. We do not know how the trial court would have ruled had it applied the appropriate standard. Again, the fact that the trial judge certified the question before us suggests he might have ruled differently. At the very least, the matter should be reversed and remanded for the trial court to address the Rule 103(b) motion as to Lincoln and to properly exercise its discretion using the appropriate standard. The majority has found that the trial court applied the wrong standard and yet affirms the trial court. I submit that the majority can only do this by exercising its discretion to resolve the issue. The discretionary call at issue here is to be made by the trial court, not the appellate court. When the trial court uses the wrong standard in exercising its discretion, the remedy is to remand to allow the trial court to exercise its discretion using the proper standard. People v. Longoria, 375 Ill. App. 3d 346, 351, 872 N.E.2d 1083, 1087 (2007). For the foregoing reasons, I dissent from that portion of the majority decision which affirms the trial court’s denial of defendant Lincoln’s Rule 103(b) motion.