Court Opinion

ID: 9708981
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:37:12.012377+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:45.127565
License: Public Domain

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE McGLOON, specially concurring: ' I concur with the decision of the court to reverse the order of the Circuit Court of Cook County and remand the cause, but would make the following observations. I The majority believes that defendant may be proven to have been a fiduciary of the people of Cook County from the allegations in the cómplaint that he was an elected public official and the County’s agent in its dealings with Shoup and Gallagher. The fact that defendant may have been an elected official is, in my opinion, not crucial to our decision. The determinative factor is whether the particular facts alleged in the complaint could be proven to show that defendant was a fiduciary. A fiduciary relationship may be created in many ways; an agency is but one relationship which creates fiduciary duties. The usual test for determining the existence of a fiduciary relationship is whether “confidence is reposed on one side and there is a resulting superiority and influence on the other side. It is not sufficient that confidence be reposed by one party, but the confidence must be actually accepted by the other party ■ in order to constitute a fiduciary relationship.” (People ex rel. Barrett v. Central Republic Trust Co. (1939), 300 Ill.App 297, 303.) Whether such a relationship exists between the parties depends upon all the facts and circumstances of a particular case. Nolen v. Hall (1970), 130 Ill.App.2d 867. The complaint in the instant case alleges, inter alia, that Barrett recommended to the Cook County Board of Commissioners that contracts for the purchase or rental of voting machines be awarded to Shoup, and that by virtue of Barrett’s influence, “his recommendations of said contracts and proposals were tantamount to the acceptance thereof, as the action of the Cook County Board of Commissioners was in essence a mere formality.” It is further alleged that between 1956 and 1970, the Cook County Board of Commissioners was authorized to and did purchase or rent over 1000 voting machines from Shoup. Similar facts are alleged concerning the purchase of insurance for the voting machines between 1956 and 1970. In my opinion, the complaint contains allegations which may be proven to show that the County Board reposed its confidence in Barrett with regard to the voting machines and insurance contracts, and that Barrett accepted the confidence, thus creating a fiduciary relationship. It would not matter whether Barrett were an elected public official, a public employee, or a private person who had the confidence of the County Board in these matters. The relationship which if abused gives rise to an action for the declaration of a constructive trust involves a confidence reposed and accepted, as herein alleged. At trial upon remand, plaintiff would have to prove that Barrett had the confidence of the County Board, as opposed to being a person who merely made recommendations which may or may not have been followed as the Board saw fit. The majority believes that every county official has a fiduciary relationship with the county, citing People v. Bordeaux (1909), 242 Ill. 327. Such a conclusion is warranted, but with the caveat that the relationship exists only when the official performs his statutory duties. If defendant had a statutory duty to recommend contracts to the County Board, or to award contracts himself, he would be a fiduciary to the County with respect to such contracts. In the absence of a statutory provision which would govern defendant’s alleged course of conduct herein, defendant could not properly be categorized as a fiduciary by nature of his public office; he would have been acting in a personal capacity. Defendant’s fiduciary relationship with the Cook County Board of Commissioners with respect to the voting machine and insurance contracts would have arisen as a matter of fact based upon the confidence reposed and accepted, rather than as a matter of law because of defendant’s elected office. II The majority believes that the bare existence of a fiduciary relationship between plaintiff and defendant is sufficient to invoke the fraudulent concealment exception to the statute of limitations (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 83, par. 23), citing Vigus v. O’Bannon (1886) 118 Ill. 334, for the following proposition of law: “When a fiduciary relation prevails between persons, it is not necessary to the preservation of the beneficiary’s rights that he diligently search for the fiduciary’s fraud. (Vigus v. O’Bannon (1886), 118 Ill. 334, 8 N.E. 778.) * * * For so long as one of the forms of trust relationship continues, the innocent beneficiary is disabled by the very nature of that relationship from acting to discover his fiduciary’s misfeasance.” I believe that the majority has oversimplified Vigus, wherein our Supreme Court wrote: “The rule, that, in cases of fraud, the Statute of Limitations begins to run only from the time of the discovery of the fraud, will not apply, where the party, affected by the fraud, might, with ordinary diligence, have discovered it. But the failure to use such diligence may be excused, where there exists some relation of trust and confidence, as, principal and agent, client and attorney, cestui que trust and trustee, between the party committing the fraud and the party, who is affected by it, rendering it the duty of the former to disclose to the latter the true state of the transaction, and where it appears, that it was through confidence in the acts of the party, who committed the fraud, that the other was prevented from discovering it.” (Emphasis added.) (118 Ill. 334, 346.) It is my belief that Vigus holds that the statute of limitations may be tolled if there is a fiduciary relationship between the parties and the reliant party was in fact prevented from discovering the wrongful act because of the fiduciary relationship. By treating the latter element as if it exists as a matter of law, the majority fails to recognize that there may be a question of fact which must be alleged and proven on remand. See generally Annot., Fiduciary or Confidential Relationship as Affecting Estoppel to Plead Statute of Limitations, 45 A.L.R.3d 630 (1972). I cannot agree with the majority on the scope of the proceedings upon remand. On remand, plaintiff should be given the opportunity to raise the issue of whether defendant should be prevented by section 23 from raising the affirmative defense of the statute of limitations contained in section 16. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 83, pars. 16 and 23.) Plaintiff would have the burden to allege and prove that defendant was the fiduciary of Cook County and that Cook County was prevented from discovering defendant’s wrongful acts because of the fiduciary relationship.