Court Opinion

ID: 9745278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:45:41.127279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:58.614494
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE NICKELS, specially concurring: After expressly rejecting consideration of any matters outside the record, but nevertheless discussing the equities of this case in detail, the majority correctly concludes that the circuit court abused its discretion in failing to rule on plaintiff’s motion to dismiss voluntarily prior to granting defendant’s motion to dismiss with prejudice. However, in succumbing to the lure of equitable considerations, the majority overlooks the narrow parameters within which a circuit court may exercise such discretion. Although a circuit court has the discretion to decide a previously filed dispositive motion prior to a motion to dismiss voluntarily, the exercise of such discretion is limited to only those instances necessary to prevent abuse of the voluntary dismissal process. (Gibellina, 127 Ill. 2d at 137-38.) Therefore, if the initial determination finding such abuse of the voluntary dismissal process is against the manifest weight of the evidence, the circuit court has exceeded the limits of its discretion. See Mizell, 147 Ill. 2d at 425-26. In this instance, plaintiff sought voluntarily to dismiss his claim and, although not required to do so, expressly explained in his motion that the reason he was seeking voluntary dismissal was that another action was pending concerning the same facts. Thus, there is nothing in the record to support the conclusion that this was an instance of abuse of the voluntary dismissal process, and, in fact, the record belies such conclusion. Any finding that this was an abuse of the voluntary dismissal process is, therefore, necessarily against the manifest weight of the evidence, and it is unnecessary to delve into the equitable considerations presented to find that the circuit court abused its discretion in failing to rule on plaintiff’s motion for voluntary dismissal prior to defendant’s dispositive motion.