Court Opinion

ID: 9715608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:10:10.071484+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:36.297321
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE DOYLE, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. I do not agree with the majority’s interpretation of Rule 13 as establishing a 21-day “transition period” during which all action by the trial court must be suspended regardless of the circumstances. The language of that rule appears to state that the purpose of filing a supplementary appearance or other document containing the client’s address is for the client to receive notice of ongoing proceedings. The concern for the client’s “continued representation” referred to in Firkus (200 Ill. App. 3d at 989) was intended to relate, I believe, to the requirement that the client be represented up to the order of withdrawal. In the present case, plaintiff was present at the December 23 hearing at which his attorney was allowed to withdraw, he had 28 day’s advance notice of it, he agreed to the withdrawal of his attorney, and he did not object to the court’s order requiring his presence with counsel, if he desired representation, at the January 3 trial. I find nothing in the language of Rule 13 or in the decisions cited in the majority opinion indicating that the trial court should have been paralyzed in the conduct of its business on January 3. Considering the history of delay attributable to plaintiff, I would defer to the trial court’s exercise of discretion in denying plaintiff’s motion for a continuance and dismissing this cause with prejudice. No sufficiently grave reason for granting a continuance on the day of trial is evident from the record. (See Francone, 79 Ill. App. 3d at 995.) By the time of the trial date nearly eight years had elapsed since plaintiff was injured. The cause had already been voluntarily dismissed and reinstated, and the present cause had been previously dismissed twice for want of prosecution. The trial judge noted that plaintiff’s case was advanced no further than it was in 1984. Moreover, at the December 23 hearing plaintiff was directed by the trial court to retain counsel for the January 3 trial. It appears that plaintiff took no action whatsoever to comply -with the court’s direction but, instead, appeared pro se on the day of trial and requested three more months to obtain counsel, consult a physician and prepare his case for trial. Plaintiff’s failure to demonstrate any minimal effort toward retaining counsel might have reasonably been regarded by the judge as one more chapter in a pattern of delay and indifference to the trial court’s efforts to expedite a case that was close to eight years old. I cannot conclude that such delay would not have operated to the substantial prejudice of defendant in presenting her defense. See, e.g., Brown v. Drovers National Bank (1977), 54 Ill. App. 3d 593, 594-95; Elward v. Mancuso Chevrolet, Inc. (1970), 122 Ill. App. 2d 421. The majority opinion does not discuss an independent basis for the dismissal, i.e., that plaintiff was not reasonably diligent in obtaining service of process after the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations. It is apparently the majority’s view that the trial court erred by ruling on this issue without affording plaintiff another continuance to obtain counsel who might have argued against the motion. Again, I disagree and would not find an abuse of discretion in granting the motion to dismiss for want of diligent service of process.