A Cook County judge has dismissed a complaint brought against a Schaumburg lawyer by a woman who had claimed he took advantage of his position to convince her to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in two companies he had a stake in.
On June 2, Cook County Circuit Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke granted the request from lawyer Bryan R. Bagdady to toss the litigation brought against him by former client Darlene Boncimino.
In granting the request, Burke said the complaint, filed in 2014, had been brought too late, coming to the court seven years after Bagdady is alleged to have harmed Boncimino, and well beyond the deadlines set by state law.
Further, Burke questioned whether Boncimino’s case against Bagdady would have succeeded, as, “outside of considering the alleged attorney-client relationship, it is clear that plaintiff possesses no cause of action against (Bagdady) for breach of fiduciary duty or fraud,” she said.
“Further, whereas (Boncimino) does not possess a cause of action against defendant … there appears a lacking of evidence that plaintiff actually received what she purchased,” the judge wrote.
Boncimino, of Oak Brook, filed her complaint Nov. 26, 2014, in Cook County Circuit Court against Bagdady, individually and doing business as Bryan R. Bagdady P.C., alleging breach of fiduciary duties and fraud.
According to the complaint, Boncimino hired the defendants on various occasions from 2001-2005 to represent her in legal matters relating to herself and her now-deceased husband. The Bagdady firm voluntarily dissolved in 2011, the suit states.
Boncimino claims, after Bagdady gained intimate knowledge of her financial situation, education level and other personal information, he solicited her to invest in Double Density Magnetics and Big Sky Contractors without disclosing he was the majority shareholder of both.
According to the suit, Boncimino gave Bagdady hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy her shares in the businesses. She claims Bagdady never invested that money and converted it for his own personal use.
Boncimino sought $500,000 in actual damages and more than $1 million in exemplary damages. She was represented by attorneys at Lucas & Apostolopoulos in Addison.