Court Opinion

ID: 9725923
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:20:46.390156+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:21.412423
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEIGMANN, specially concurring: Although I agree with the majority opinion in this case, I write separately because I conclude this court should impose sanctions under Supreme Court Rule 375(b) (155 Ill. 2d R. 375(b)) against Thomas and his attorneys for bringing this appeal regarding attorney Masters. The underlying case in this litigation was a fairly routine defamation action that Masters brought on behalf of Hileman against Thomas. Although that case was not successful, nothing about it remotely establishes any liability on Masters’ part for having brought the case, and none of the pleadings in this malicious prosecution action come close to justifying Thomas’s claim against Masters. The “best” claim Thomas can make against Masters appears on page 26 of his initial brief, where he states as follows: “Defendant Masters must have known his client, a candidate and then public official, had no right to sue a citizen for writing a letter to the editor critical of him as a candidate. In any event, such a determination is for the trier of fact.” This claim provides an insufficient basis for a malicious prosecution lawsuit against Masters, who simply brought a defamation action on behalf of his client. Moreover, the claim is clearly insufficient to justify an appeal of the trial court’s dismissal of Thomas’s lawsuit. Rule 375(b) provides for sanctions for appeals which are “frivolous,” which the rule further defines as “not reasonably well grounded in fact and not warranted by existing law or a good-faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.” 155 Ill. 2d R. 375(b). I view this appeal of the trial court’s dismissal of Thomas’s case against Masters as frivolous, and I conclude this court should impose sanctions for bringing this appeal upon either Thomas, his attorney, or both.