The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled a man did not lose his chance to continue a workplace accident lawsuit by omitting the suit from his bankruptcy filing, saying the man did not intentionally try to pull a scam on the bankruptcy court.
The Jan. 20 decision was written by Justice Lisa Holder White, with concurrence from Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis and Justices P. Scott Neville Jr., David Overstreet and Joy V. Cunningham. Justices Mary K. O'Brien and Elizabeth Rochford did not take part. The decision favored Darrius Duniver in his action against Clark Material Handling Company, Neovia Logistics Services, Battery Handling Systems and Equipment Depot of Illinois.
Clark makes forklift trucks and is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, with facilities around the globe, including in Cook County. Neovia is based in Irving, Texas, and Battery Handling is based in St. Louis. Equipment Depot is in suburban Itasca.
Duniver lost a leg while working as a forklift driver for Clark in 2017. He lodged a personal injury suit in 2019 in Cook County Circuit Court. Three weeks later, he filed for bankruptcy.
In his bankruptcy petition, Duniver did not report, as required, that the suit was underway, according to court papers. The defendants pounced on this omission, saying as a result, Duniver had to abandon the suit, because his personal injury claim belonged to the bankruptcy estate.
Duniver replied he inadvertently omitted the suit, because his bankruptcy attorney allegedly did not tell him he had to report it.
The Cook County judge handling the suit, Kathy M. Flanagan, sided with defendants, alleging Duniver had "blatantly deceived" the bankruptcy trustee.
Illinois First District Appellate Court reversed Flanagan, finding Duniver eventually added the suit to the bankruptcy case before it was dismissed, gained no benefit from his initial omission, and gave no indication of deception.
At the Illinois Supreme Court, Justice Holder White backed up the appellate decision.
"We agree that reasonable people could conclude from these facts that Duniver’s actions in bankruptcy proceedings resulted from confusion and inadvertence, not an intent to deceive," Holder White said. "There is ample room to conclude Duniver was indeed confused and intended no deceit."
Duniver was represented before the state Supreme Court by Chicago lawyer Michael W. Rathsack.
Defendants were represented by Julie Ann Teuscher, of Cassiday Schade, of Chicago.