The Illinois Supreme Court will decide whether the city of Chicago needs to garage its controversial tax on cars rented from businesses located outside the city, but within three miles of Chicago city limits. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, the state high court announced it would hear arguments in the lawsuit brought against City Hall by auto rental companies Hertz and Enterprise, who challenged the tax as an illegal extension of the city’s authority.
A trio of Dolton village trustees scored a victory in their dispute with the mayor and clerk over the legality of the town’s recall ordinance, as an appeals panel found the Illinois state constitution requires municipalities, like Dolton, must first secure the approval of voters at referendum for such recall powers.
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court has denied attorney Stephen Tillery's request to recall a mandate the Court issued a decade ago after it struck down a $10.1 billion judgment against Philip Morris. In the same announcement posted this afternoon, the Court also referred to Justice Lloyd Karmeier Tillery's move to recuse or disqualify Karmeier from hearing the matter. Karmeier then denied that request, as well.
Attorneys for a Skokie motel corporation are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to establish the formula for courts to use in determining whether state and local fines are over the top, as they challenge federal court dismissals of their lawsuit alleging fines charged by the city of Chicago under its weed ordinance are excessive under the U.S. Constitution.
A state appellate panel has struck down an Illinois law providing tax exemptions to hospitals, saying lawmakers erred under the state constitution in believing hospitals should be able to avoid paying property taxes because they may provide enough benefits to their communities to offset the millions of dollars in tax revenue lost to cities, counties, school districts and other local property tax-collecting entities.
Condominium owners who wish to challenge the legality of fees charged by their properties’ owners associations don’t get two chances in court to do so, an Illinois state appellate panel has found, upholding a Cook County judge’s dismissal of an evicted condo owner’s suit over association assessment late fees, saying the owner should have raised the issue when he was evicted three years before. The appellate order was filed Dec. 17 under Supreme Court Rule 23.
The Illinois Supreme Court has shot down a plaintiff’s attempt to change judges after she dropped a lawsuit and then re-filed it, saying her attempt to “reset the clock” on the process was a loophole those who wrote the rules did not intend to be exploited. State law allows each party to a lawsuit to request one substitution of judge without cause, as long as the motion is made before the judge has ruled on matters of substance in the case.
After taking a second look, a state appeals panel has again upheld as constitutional a Chicago ordinance prohibiting anyone, even protesters, from remaining overnight in Grant Park without special permission. On Dec. 22, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court ruled the city of Chicago did not march on the First Amendment rights of Occupy Chicago protesters when police arrested protesters who refused to leave.
An Illinois group which advocates for the rights of gun owners has taken aim at Cook County’s taxes on the sales of firearms and ammunition, asking the courts to find the county’s taxes to be unconstitutional infringements on the Second Amendment rights of citizens in the county. On Dec. 17, Guns Save Life Inc., a group which purports to include members in Cook County and throughout Illinois, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court.
Saying to rule otherwise would illegally limit the ability of the Chicago Public Schools and other school districts to choose to hire or not hire teachers, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to reject the Chicago Teachers’ Union’s attempt to force the Chicago Board of Education to arbitrate grievances over how CPS designates probationary teachers it ultimately opts not to hire.
The blizzard of litigation filed against Volkswagen in the wake of revelations the automaker allegedly installed devices on diesel cars to fool emissions testing equipment has been redirected to federal court in San Francisco. Across the country, more than 500 lawsuits - primarily class action complaints - have been lodged in federal district courts against Volkswagen. In the Northern District of Illinois, for instance, 19 such lawsuits have been filed against VW.
Prominent Chicago bankruptcy lawyer Peter Francis Geraci and his wife have beaten back a Mexican mining magnate’s right-of-first-refusal suit, which tried to stop Geraci from buying a Magnificent Mile penthouse above the magnate’s floor. The First District Appellate Court of Illinois ruled in the Geraci couple’s favor Nov. 30, overturning a Cook County Circuit Court decision that had gone against them.
Online travel agents are facing legal action from local government agencies across the country, claiming they are being shorted perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars of hotel taxes by the travel sites.
Two title insurance companies did not participate in an illegal kickback scheme by splitting fees with Chicago area real estate lawyers in return for those attorneys referring clients to them, a divided state appeals panel has ruled, finding lawyers are allowed to be paid fees by the title companies – even fees that may appear large, relative to the work they actually performed – if they perform any work related to clearing a title, at all.
A class action lawsuit has been cleared to move forward against Bumble Bee Foods, claiming the food packager improperly labeled its canned tuna to promote health benefits it may not have been legally entitled to advertise, after a federal judge threw back the food company’s motions to dismiss. Plaintiff Joseph McMahon, filing as an individual and class representative, has claimed Bumble Bee had no legal right to label its canned tuna and other seafood as an “excellent source of Omega-3s.”
The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled unpaid condominium association assessments are not erased through foreclosure, unless the new owner forks over their first post-purchase assessment payment on time, otherwise they have to pick up the tab. The high court’s decision was delivered Dec. 3 by Justice Thomas Kilbride, with the rest of the court concurring.
Homeowners who fail to pay their property taxes can still legally lose their homes even if the buyer of the tax deed can’t confirm the former homeowners have been notified, so long as county officials and the buyers make a realistic effort to contact the delinquent taxpayer and satisfy due process requirements under the law, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.
A 59-year-old executive will be allowed to proceed with his age discrimination lawsuit against a San Diego-based maker of medical devices after a federal judge declined to dismiss his allegations the company that wouldn't give him an interview worded its open job listings in a way intended to discretely “weed out” older, more experienced applicants.
The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to take up the question of whether U.S. Supreme Court precedent or that of the state’s highest court should hold serve when deciding whether a decision by the Greater Chicago Water Reclamation District to release flood waters and damage private homes in the process constitutes an illegal taking of property. It was one of six cases the state high court agreed to take on appeal.
The Illinois State Supreme Court has disbarred a Highland Park attorney who a state lawyer discipline panel found had sexually harassed five female former employees, a neighbor and a woman he did not know who was walking down the street. On Nov. 17, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission announced it had disbarred Paul M. Weiss and four other attorneys, while suspending 13 others.
