The Dec. 30 decision was penned by Justice Robert Gordon, with concurrence from Justices Jesse Reyes and Bertina Lampkin. The order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23, which means it may not be cited as precedent, except in the limited circumstances permitted by Rule 23.
The ruling favored Thomas M. O’Donnell in his quest for sanctions against Garrett P. Fitzgerald and Timothy P. Gibbons.
O’Donnell ran as a Democrat for 47th Ward alderman in 2011, but lost. He was also president of the Ravenswood Community Council in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood on the city’s North Side from 2001 to 2012.
Fitzgerald was executive director of the North Center Chamber of Commerce in the North Center neighborhood, just south of Ravenswood. Gibbons ran Tim’s Snowplowing, which had contracts with the Ravenswood Community Council until O’Donnell lost his aldermanic bid. Fitzgerald and Gibbons alleged O’Donnell shut off the contracts, because they “associated” with the winner of the election, current 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar.
Pawar recently declared he would seek the Democratic nomination for Illinois governor in 2018.
Gibbons and Fitzgerald further alleged a vengeful O’Donnell mailed letters in November 2011 and February 2012 to public officials and the press that defamed them. The letters allegedly claimed Fitzgerald and Gibbons took bribes to circulate petitions for political candidates, and claimed Fitzgerald had been fired from a political campaign for working while intoxicated. The letters also alleged conflicts of interest existed in connection with contracts between Tim’s Snowplowing and the City of Chicago.
Fitzgerald and Gibbons sued O’Donnell for defamation in 2012 in Cook County Circuit Court, eventually amending the suit three times. The plaintiffs named three other defendants, but they were eventually dropped from the litigation.
In the suit’s third version, filed in April 2013, plaintiffs added the claim they were basing their suit in part on a handwriting analysis, which indicated O’Donnell addressed the envelopes that contained the letters. It was later disclosed the analyst’s report was dated Feb. 10, 2014.
In April 2015, plaintiffs withdrew their suit, explaining Fitzgerald was terminally ill. However, O’Donnell pressed for sanctions against plaintiffs on the grounds the suit had been baseless.
In September 2015, Circuit Judge Eileen Brewer approved sanctions, determining the handwriting analysis claim was not “well-grounded in fact or warranted by existing law,” because the analysis report was not compiled until 10 months after plaintiffs made the claim.
Brewer also noted the handwriting expert said O’Donnell “may” have written the addresses, noting that, on the classification scale used by such handwriting experts, “may” is one step above “inconclusive” and three steps below “identification.” As a result, Brewer found the alleged link to O’Donnell was weak.
“This Court finds a sufficient factual basis that Plaintiffs’ actions were politically motivated, based solely on speculation, and an attempt to harm the Defendants without a reasonable belief based on direct or circumstantial evidence that O’Donnell addressed the envelopes and/or wrote the defamatory letters,” Brewer concluded.
The judge ordered plaintiffs to pay the legal costs O’Donnell absorbed after the analysis claim was included in the third amended complaint, which amounted to $52,602. Defendants appealed.
Appellate Justice Gordon agreed with the circuit judge, saying there was no evidence the analyst told plaintiffs of an alleged tie between O’Donnell and the envelopes, before defendants claimed there was a tie.
“Plaintiffs made their statement about ‘handwriting analysis’ before they had possession of the report,” Gordon said. “If it were not for paragraph 46 (where the handwriting allegation is made) in the third amended complaint, the complaint would have been dismissed.”
O'Donnell has been represented by Chicago lawyer James P. Nally. Fitzgerald and Gibbons have been represented by the Chicago firm of Gomberg, Scharfman, Gold & Ostler.