Two men who supported an attempt to unionize an Illinois railroad company are not protected by the law from being fired for their support for organizing their coworkers, a state appeals panel has ruled.
A state appeals panel has upheld a $12 million medical malpractice award to the family of a father of three children who died of a rare blood disease after a chain of misdiagnoses and other problems left him with failing organs, and a nurse who had been specially dispatched to provide a potentially lifesaving specialized emergency treatment took more than six hours to travel to the hospital where he died.
Predicting a double standard would result if it allowed an appeals court’s decision to stand, the Illinois Supreme Court said a lower court erred in ordering a self-insured Chicago-area car rental business to pay the victim of a car crash $600,000 – far more than what would have been required under the law if the company had purchased an outside insurance policy.
A state appeals panel has overturned a trial judge’s decision to dismiss with prejudice a legal action to collect unpaid credit card debt, saying the trial judge erred in not granting a lender’s request to voluntarily withdraw the action. On Oct. 16, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court tossed out the ruling delivered by Cook County Associate Judge Israel Desierto.
The Democratic Party of Cook County has endorsed its candidates for the judicial benches in the Cook County Circuit Court and Illinois First District Appellate Court, and party officials said they believe the "diverse" group represents the region well.
While a Cook County man awaits a new trial in a lawsuit he filed after being injured in an auto accident - and for which he had been awarded $3.5 million - he has filed a new suit against the insurance company defending the other driver, saying the insurance company sued him without cause and now owes him $4 million.
The city of Chicago can pull its controversial three-mile-radius car rental tax from the curb, after a state appellate panel determined the tax is a “use tax” assessed only on city residents using their rented vehicles in the city, and not an attempt to slap a transaction tax on vehicle rentals outside of city limits, which otherwise would have been an illegal extension of the city’s authority.
Former shareholders who owned minority positions in a commodity trading firm have no malpractice case against their onetime attorneys, because the case is based on the incongruity of pursuing individual claims on behalf of a corporation, the state’s high court has ruled. On Sept. 24, the Illinois State Supreme Court ended the latest round in a legal battle that dates back to 2005, when several minority shareholders in Beeland Management LLC hired the law firm of McGuireWoods to sue Beeland.
Brookfield Zoo sits on publicly owned land. And every year, it receives a large amount of tax dollars to help fund operations. But the zoo should not enjoy the same protections from lawsuits given to governmental organizations and their offshoots in Illinois, the state’s high court has ruled.
A lawyer’s failure to file an appeal on time may have technically torpedoed a family’s lawsuit against another attorney who they blame for destroying their businesses. But an appellate panel has determined the family would have lost the appeal and the case anyway, and so has denied the family’s attempt to sue its attorney for losing the suit.
An appellate court has upheld a lower court’s ruling against the granddaughter of business luminary Harold C. Price, rejecting the woman's suit against her attorney and the Katten Muchin Rosenman law firm for legal malpractice based on claims his legal advice caused her to lose $14 million of an $18 million inheritance.
A state appellate panel has decided a wrongful death lawsuit brought against a waste collection company over the death of a man whose car collided with a garbage truck near Belvidere should stay in Boone County, despite the desire of the man’s family to try the case in Cook County.
A dog owner has claimed the Chicago Animal Care and Control Commission overreacted when it classified her pet a dangerous creature for mauling a smaller dog, but a state appellate panel has sided with the city commission.
The operators of Rivers Casino were dealt a blow last week when a state appellate court overturned a Cook County judge’s decision vacating Cook County’s video gaming tax. Midwest Gaming and Entertainment, which operates the Des Plaines casino, had sought relief from Cook County’s tax on video gambling machines, prevailing upon Cook County Circuit Court Judge Robert Lopez Cepero to find the county tax ordinance was preempted by the state’s Riverboat Gambling Act.
A state appellate panel has ruled the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion, and not that of the state’s highest court, should hold sway in a case in which a group of Chicago area homeowners have argued a decision by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to release flood waters, resulting in backed-up sewers, flooded creeks and extensive damages to surrounding homes, constitutes an illegal taking of their property under the Illinois Constitution.
A fourth attempt by a pair of airline travelers to sue United for reducing their perks under a seniors program fell flat on Aug. 10, when a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court upheld the Cook County Circuit Court’s dismissal of the case.
Walmart’s hopes to get a Chicago liquor license for its River North Walmart Express store suffered a major setback last week as a state appellate panel said the city was justified in denying the license over concerns allowing the retailer to sell alcohol could contribute to increased crime in the area.
A Chicago construction company has prevailed on appeal in its malpractice beef with a Chicago law firm, in which the company claimed it lost more than $1 million after the firm allowed a lender to jump its lien on a failed Loop condominium project.
An Illinois appeals panel has sided with a Chicago building owner against an insurance company, in a dispute over who should pay for a 2010 porch collapse at a Lakeview apartment building – an event the insurer had tried to avoid covering by arguing, in part, the porch was a “deck” and was not actually a part of the insured building.
