Court Opinion

ID: 9707885
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:23:54.074664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:39.366493
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN, dissenting: Sears’ “Easy Payment Plan” violates the Retail Installment Sales Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 121½, par. 501 et seq.). Section 3(a) of the Retail Installment Sales Act requires that retail installment sales contracts be in writing, and completed in all essential details prior to being signed by the buyer. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 121½, par. 503(a).) Section 21(a) provides in pertinent part: “(a) If, in a retail installment transaction, a retail buyer makes any subsequent purchase of goods or services from a retail seller from whom he has previously purchased goods or services under one or more retail installment contracts, and the amounts under the previous contract or contracts have not been fully paid, the subsequent purchases may, at the seller’s option, be included in and consolidated with one or more of the previous contracts.” (Emphasis added.) Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 121%, par. 521(a). The complaint alleged, and Sears essentially concedes, that it did not require persons who had paid in full the amount due under a retail installment sales contract with Sears to execute a new contract before participating in the “Easy Payment Plan” for subsequent purchases of goods. The foregoing provision allows consolidation of purchases, but only when the amount owed under the previous purchase had not been fully paid. A new written contract must, however, be executed in all cases where goods are purchased under a retail installment sales contract, even in cases where consolidation is permitted. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 121½, par. 521(a). The Retail Installment Sales Act is a statutory exception to the Illinois Interest Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 74, par. 1 et seq.). For the transactions in which Sears failed to comply with the Retail Installment Sales Act, the interest rate which they may charge for goods sold on credit is governed by the Interest Act, which provides for a maximum interest rate on installment loans of 9% per year. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 74, par. 4a.) The interest rate charged under the “Easy Payment Plan,” 18% per year, is a violation of the Interest Act. The Interest Act, unlike the Retail Installment Sales Act, provides for a private cause of action, and therefore plaintiff’s complaint was improperly dismissed. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 74, par. 6. The majority avoids this issue by finding the Interest Act inapplicable based on the distinction between interest and “time-price differential.” The difference between interest on money loaned and interest charged for goods purchased on credit is at best artificial. This court compounds the error of the court in Johnson v. Sears Roebuck & Co. (1973), 14 Ill. App. 3d 838, 303 N.E.2d 627, by following this artificial and erroneous distinction. The hard fact is the transactions here involved were not excepted from the Interest Act by reason of the Retail Installment Sales Act exception. The Interest Act applies. For us not to so hold thwarts the legislative purpose and creates artificial and intellectually indefensible distinctions.