{
  "id": 3541007,
  "name": "NORTH CICERO DODGE, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VICTORIA FEED COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee",
  "name_abbreviation": "North Cicero Dodge, Inc. v. Victoria Feed Co.",
  "decision_date": "1987-01-28",
  "docket_number": "No. 3-86-0401",
  "first_page": "860",
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    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
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    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
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      "cite": "85 Ill. App. 3d 186",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T16:55:10.892091+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "NORTH CICERO DODGE, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VICTORIA FEED COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "JUSTICE STOUDER\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nThe plaintiff, North Cicero Dodge, Inc., appeals from the dismissal with prejudice of its claim against the defendant, Victoria Feed Company, for lack of diligence in obtaining service of process. We affirm.\nThe facts are undisputed. On March 28, 1979, the defendant\u2019s tractor trailer (the truck) collided with the plaintiff\u2019s automobile at an intersection in Macomb, Illinois. In August of 1979, the plaintiff\u2019s insurance carrier submitted to the defendant\u2019s insurer a subrogation claim for the plaintiff\u2019s property loss. On March 27, 1984, the plaintiff filed a complaint against the defendant and had an original summons issued to the Knox County sheriff. The sheriff returned the summons on April 2, 1984, with the notation that the defendant could not be found, and the additional notation that \u201cVictoria Feed Co. [is] no longer in operation.\u201d On November 22, 1985, the plaintiff caused an alias summons to be issued to the Rock Island County sheriff. Service on the defendant was obtained in the city of Rock Island on November 27, 1985.\nOn January 3, 1986, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 103(b), alleging that the plaintiff failed to exercise reasonable diligence in serving process on the defendant. In an attached affidavit, the defendant stated that it had been in continuous operation since 1959 with its principal place of business in Rock Island; that it had been continuously registered as an Illinois corporation with the Secretary of State since 1959; that since 1959 the defendant had been listed in the Quad-Cities telephone directory; that its mailing address had been a post office box in Milan, Illinois; and that its mailing address had been listed on the truck\u2019s vehicle registration with the Secretary of State and on the truck\u2019s operating permit with the Illinois Commerce Commission. Also attached to the motion was the Macomb police accident report giving the defendant\u2019s mailing address.\nThe plaintiff filed a counteraffidavit in opposition to the defendant\u2019s motion. In the counteraffidavit, the plaintiff stated that the defendant\u2019s insurer had been aware of the plaintiff\u2019s insurer\u2019s subrogation claim for more than six years; that the Knox County sheriff returned the original summons indicating that the defendant could not be found and was no longer in operation; that the plaintiff examined the directories of 10 telephone exchanges before locating the defendant\u2019s address in the Quad-Cities directory; and that the plaintiff subsequently caused an alias summons to be served upon the defendant in Rock Island County.\nBased upon the above affidavits, the court dismissed the plaintiff\u2019s cause with prejudice because of the plaintiff\u2019s failure to use reasonable diligence in the service of the alias summons. The plaintiff brings this appeal.\nSupreme Court Rule 103(b) provides in relevant part that an action shall be dismissed with prejudice if a plaintiff\u2019s failure to exercise reasonable diligence to obtain service occurs after the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations. (87 Ill. 2d R 103(b).) The purpose of this rule is to protect defendants from unnecessary delays in the service of process upon them. (Greenwood v. Blondell (1980), 85 Ill. App. 3d 186, 406 N.E.2d 204.) A dismissal of an action pursuant to Rule 103(b) is within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed on review absent an abuse of that discretion. Montero v. University of Illinois Hospital (1978), 57 Ill. App. 3d 206, 372 N.E.2d 1010.\nThe standard for determining reasonable diligence is an objective one, and the burden is on the plaintiff to show that he has exercised such diligence in his efforts to obtain service. (Hanna v. Kelly (1980), 91 Ill. App. 3d 896, 414 N.E.2d 1262.) The factors that a court will consider to determine whether the plaintiff has exercised reasonable diligence are: (1) the length of time used to obtain service; (2) the activities of the plaintiff; (3) the plaintiff\u2019s knowledge of the defendant\u2019s location; (4) the ease with which the defendant\u2019s location could have been ascertained; (5) the actual knowledge by the defendant of the pendency of the action; and (6) special circumstances which would affect the plaintiff\u2019s efforts. Licka v. William A. Sales, Ltd. (1979), 70 Ill. App. 3d 929, 388 N.E.2d 1261.\nIn the case at hand, the plaintiff filed its complaint and issued the original summons one day prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Following the return of the unanswered summons, the plaintiff spent 20 months examining 10 telephone directories before finding the defendant\u2019s address. The plaintiff could have more readily discovered the address either through the defendant\u2019s corporate registration or vehicle registration with the Secretary of State, or through the truck\u2019s operating permit with the Illinois Commerce Commission. The plaintiff also could have checked the accident report which listed the defendant\u2019s Milan mailing address. The Knox County sheriff\u2019s notation on the original summons that the defendant was no longer in operation was not a sufficient special circumstance to excuse the delay. We find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the plaintiff\u2019s action with prejudice.\nAccordingly, the judgment of the circuit court of Rock Island County is affirmed.\nAffirmed.\nSCOTT, P.J., and WOMBACHER, J., concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "JUSTICE STOUDER"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "W.K. Harris, of Harris & Harris, of Macomb, for appellant.",
      "West, Neagle & Williamson, of Galesburg, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "NORTH CICERO DODGE, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VICTORIA FEED COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.\nThird District\nNo. 3-86-0401\nOpinion filed January 28, 1987.\nW.K. Harris, of Harris & Harris, of Macomb, for appellant.\nWest, Neagle & Williamson, of Galesburg, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0860-01",
  "first_page_order": 882,
  "last_page_order": 885
}