Articles Posted in Appellate Jurisdiction

The City of West Chicago passed a zoning ordinance that banned certain billboards. Lamar Whiteco Outdoor Corporation sued the city, claiming the ordinance was unconstitutional. Lamar and the city eventually settled: an injunction was entered prohibiting the city from enforcing the ordinance against Lamar, and Lamar withdrew the lawsuit.

Lamar then filed a petition for its attorney fees. The trial court ruled that Lamar was entitled to the fees. But the court did not state how much money Lamar should get. The city asked the court to reconsider the ruling. The court refused to reconsider, and also ordered under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 304(a) [no just reason to delay enforcement or appeal of final judgments as to one or more but fewer than all of the parties or claims] that its order allowing the attorney fees was a final and appealable interlocutory order.

The city appealed. But Lamar argued the appellate court did not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Lamar maintained that Rule 304(a) did not give the appellate court a basis to consider the appeal.

Elena and Michael Sanfratello were in a disputed divorce case. Michael appealed rulings concerning child support and classification, apportionment, and dissipation of marital assets.

Elena cross-appealed (1) whether certain of Michael’s businesses were marital assets and (2) confirmation of a sale to Michael’s parents of the marital home, which was in foreclosure. The foreclosure action, filed by the bank that held the mortgage, was handled in another court by another judge. Elena made Michael’s parents parties to that action, claiming they and Michael were guilty of fraud in the foreclosure and sale. But Elena did not appeal the order within 30 days. The foreclosure matter then was consolidated into the divorce case.

About a year later, after the divorce case was concluded and Michael appealed, Elena filed her cross-appeal, including an appeal of the foreclosure confirmation. Michael’s parents argued that Elena’s cross-appeal should be dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction. They claimed that the confirmation order was final and appealable when it was issued, and that Elena’s appeal should have been filed within 30 days of that time.

Cheryl Heiden claimed Craig Ottinger was her daughter’s father. So Cheryl sued Craig under the Illinois Parentage Act, and asked for support payments from Craig. A DNA test of Craig’s blood excluded him as father. But Cheryl claimed Craig’s vial of blood was mishandled, so she sued the DNA Diagnostics Center, the company that agreed to do the test.

DNA Diagnostics asked for, and received, summary judgment on Cheryl’s complaint. Within the 30-day deadline, Cheryl filed a “Motion to Reconsider Court Order of April 13, 2007, and For Clarification of said Order.” The trial court denied the motion, and Cheryl appealed within 30 days of that order.

But Diagnostics asserted that Cheryl’s appeal should be dismissed because it was filed more than 30 days after the summary judgment was entered by the trial court. Cheryl’s Motion to Reconsider, Diagnostics argued, was not a valid post-judgment motion, so it did not extend the time for her to file the appeal.

Louis Mund sued the Browns and the Furkins for abuse of process, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Browns and the Furkins asked the trial court to dismiss the case. They argued that the Illinois Citizen Participation Act (statute that “aims to protect defendants from ‘Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation’ (SLAPPs), which harass citizens for exercising constitutional rights, such as the right to petition the government.”) The trial court denied the request to dismiss the case, so the Browns and the Furkins appealed.

The Browns and the Furkins argued that the Citizen Participation Act expressly allowed an appeal “from a trial court order denying” a motion to dismiss. But the Fifth District Illinois Appellate Court refused to recognize that part of the statute, and dismissed the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction. The appellate court ruled that the legislative attempt to make the order immediately appealable conflicted with the Illinois Constitution in two respects:

• First, the constitution allows only final orders to be appealed, and permits only the Illinois Supreme Court to make rules for appeal of interlocutory orders.

James Bertell was involuntarily committed to the Rockford Memorial Hospital. James sued the hospital, claiming its petition for involuntary commitment was late. The circuit court disagreed and dismissed James’s complaint. After the trial court denied James’s motion for reconsideration of the dismissal, James appealed within the 30-day deadline.

Nevertheless, the hospital asked the appellate court to dismiss the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction, asserting that James’s notice of appeal was filed too late. The hospital argued that James’s motion for reconsideration did not extend the time to file the appeal because the motion was “invalid and frivolous.” But the Second District Illinois Appellate Court disagreed because the rule that extends the time to file an appeal did not make an exception for unfounded reconsideration motions. Here’s the way the court explained it:

Plaintiff complied with the rule [Illinois Supreme Court Rule 303(a)(1), allowing an appeal to be filed within 30 days after a ruling on a reconsideration motion] and the statute [Illinois Civil Procedure Rule 2-1203(a), applying the extended deadline to reconsideration motions made after a bench trial]. He filed his notice of appeal within 30 days after the entry of the order denying his motion to reconsider. He filed the motion, which was directed and sought relief against the judgment dismissing his complaint, within 30 days after the entry of the judgment. Therefore, given the plain language of Rule 303(a)(1) and section 2-1203(a), we conclude that we have jurisdiction over plaintiff’s appeal.

Rick Santella fought with family members over control of Food Groupie, Inc., a closely held family corporation. Santella, and Mary and William Kolton were co-owners of the company. Santella sued the Koltons after they gave themselves bonuses and commissions, and stated their intention to close Food Groupie and to open a similar business in which Santella would not be involved.

Santella’s lawsuit asked for return of the bonus ($ 144,019) to Food Groupie, and removal of the Koltons as directors and officers of the company. After the trial court granted both of Santella’s requests, the Koltons appealed under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 307(a)(1) (interlocutory appeal allowed from a trial court order “granting, modifying, refusing, dissolving, or refusing to dissolve or modify an injunction.”)

Santella asked the First District Illinois Appellate Court to dismiss the appeal. He argued, and the appellate court agreed, that removing the Koltons as directors and officers did not require them to do anything, so those orders were not injunctions that could be appealed under Rule 307(a)(1).

The O’Briens were involved in a divorce case. John O’Brien questioned some of the actions of the trial judge and thought the judge was biased. John asked for substitution of the judge. John’s request was heard by a second judge, who denied it because of a lack of evidence of prejudice.

The case went back to the first judge, held a trial on the divorce petition. The court ruled that John should make child support and maintenance payments to Lisa. After an unsuccessful reconsideration motion, John appealed.

John wanted to contest the denial of his request for substitution. But John’s notice of appeal only stated he was appealing from the denial of his reconsideration motion “and all prior orders of court culminating therein.” The issue was whether that notice of appeal was sufficient to give the appellate court jurisdiction to consider John’s request for another judge.

Dennis Ballinger owned a communications tower that was erected on property in Hancock County, Illinois. He filed a petition to obtain a tax deed for the property. Pettit Land, LLC. disputed Ballinger’s petition. Pettit claimed it owned the land, but not the tower, and that it properly paid taxes for the land.

Pettit asked the court to deny Ballinger’s request for the tax deed. After a hearing on Pettit’s request, the trial court ruled in Pettit’s favor and stated: “…[I]f petitioner [Ballinger] proceeded forward to obtain a tax deed, he would only receive rights in the improvements on the site (the communications tower) and would not receive rights to the underlying ground.”

Ballinger asked the trial court to reconsider the ruling. The court denied Ballinger’s request, and ruled that its original order and the order denying reconsideration were final and appealable. So Ballinger appealed.

The Illinois Supreme Court recently reversed the appellate court and dismissed Jennifer Keener’s appeal. Jennifer sued the City of Herrin on behalf of Chelsea Keener’s estate. Chelsea had been taken into custody by Herrin police for unlawful consumption of alcohol. After the police let Chelsea leave, she was struck by an automobile and killed.

Herrin asked for, and received, a dismissal of Jennifer’s amended complaint. But the court clerk did not mail a copy of the dismissal order to Jennifer’s lawyer. Apparently unaware of the dismissal, seven months later, Jennifer’s lawyer filed a response to Herrin’s motion to dismiss.

Four months after that, the case was heard on Herrin’s request for a status conference. At the status conference, the trial court stated its intention to reconsider the dismissal “upon written motion to be submitted” by Jennifer. The trial court ultimately denied Jennifer’s motion to reconsider.

Benjamin Hernandez, adjudicated to be a sexually violent person under the Illinois Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, was placed on conditional release. The State appealed, but filed its notice of appeal before the trial court approved the conditional release plan. Nor did the State file a new notice of appeal after the conditional release plan was approved.

The Second District Illinois Appellate Court dismissed the appeal because the State’s only notice of appeal was premature. When the trial court entered the order that placed Hernandez on conditional release, it also continued the case “for the presentation of a release plan.” The order for conditional release was not final and appealable, the court ruled, because:

[It] necessitated and contemplated further action by the court to determine the conditions of release. The [trial] court expressly retained jurisdiction over the proceedings for approval of the conditional release plan, as required by statute … We determine that the reservation of jurisdiction for the purpose of entering a conditional release plan shows that not all of the issues in dispute were fully addressed and settled by the July 3 [conditional release] order. Thus, the July 3 order was not final.

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