Court Opinion

ID: 9542757
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:38:14.935403+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:53.088461
License: Public Domain

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE BARRY, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I concur in the opinion of the majority except for the language disposing of the issue of the propriety of the $100,000 punitive damage award given to the plaintiff-appellee following this jury trial. Accordingly, I dissent with respect to the majority position on that issue. I seriously disagree with any disposition of a challenge to plaintiff’s jury award of punitive damages because the result reached by the majority opinion on the other issues raised makes a decision on the merits of the punitive damage issue premature. The majority concluded that the case must be reversed and remanded for a new trial on other grounds, a position with which I agree. Such a result makes any opinion by this court on the punitive damage issue purely advisory and clearly dicta. Upon remand the trial may result in a different outcome and our philosophy on whether punitive damages here were proper would be meaningless discourse. As the majority opinion correctly emphasizes, punitive damages may be properly awarded where the defendant’s actions are accompanied by aggravating circumstances. (Zokoych v. Spalding (1st Dist. 1976), 36 Ill. App. 3d 654, 344 N.E.2d 805.) From an extensive examination of the pleadings and record testimony in this case, I believe that a question for the jury was presented as to whether the defendant acted in a wilful and wanton manner. The majority opinion wrongly concludes that the defendant acted only under a mistake of law (that is, not equating the trust deed obtained with a mortgage) and cannot therefore be guilty of wilful and wanton misconduct. The record clearly supports the position that some of defendant’s allegedly wrongful acts were committed prior to the execution of the trust instruments. In view of this, the majority inappropriately characterizes all of the defendant’s acts to be a result of a mistake of law. Although the defendant’s employees may have mistaken the legal effect of the trust instruments, they appear to have been aware that the mortgage was insufficient for their purposes, and therefore sought to have the mortgage replaced by the trust instruments. A jury could find that the acts of the defendant, through its employee, in inducing the plaintiff and her husband to sign the trust instruments, were fraudulently motivated, wilful, wanton or oppressive. Upon retrial the plaintiff may amend the complaint to conform to the evidence already proved (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 110, par. 46(3)), could produce additional evidence to support an award of punitive damages, and the defendant would undoubtedly submit evidence contrary wise. Because an issue of punitive damages is one for the jury, I cannot sanction the majority’s premature disposition of this issue before the retrial upon remand of this case, preempting the trial court’s discretion and usurping the function of the jury. Furthermore, because it is advisory and premature, the majority opinion’s statement as to punitive damages is not binding on the trial court.