{ "id": 4264896, "name": "PRENAM No. 2, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. THE VILLAGE OF SCHILLER PARK, Defendant-Appellant", "name_abbreviation": "Prenam No. 2, Inc. v. Village of Schiller Park", "decision_date": "2006-08-17", "docket_number": "No. 1\u201405\u20143025", "first_page": "62", "last_page": "67", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "367 Ill. App. 3d 62" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.", "id": 8837, "name": "Illinois Appellate Court" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 29, "name_long": "Illinois", "name": "Ill." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "329 Ill. App. 3d 93", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill. App. 3d", "case_ids": [ 1472355 ], "year": 2002, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "96", "parenthetical": "discussing the revestment doctrine" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill-app-3d/329/0093-01" ] }, { "cite": "96 Ill. 2d 150", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill. 2d", "case_ids": [ 3113729 ], "year": 1983, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "153-54" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill-2d/96/0150-01" ] }, { "cite": "363 Ill. App. 3d 795", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill. App. 3d", "case_ids": [ 5766037 ], "year": 2006, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "801" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill-app-3d/363/0795-01" ] }, { "cite": "114 Ill. 2d 209", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill. 2d", "case_ids": [ 5542740 ], "weight": 5, "year": 1986, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "220-21" }, { "page": "221" }, { "page": "221" }, { "page": "222" }, { "page": "224-25", "parenthetical": "concluding \"[w]hen all of the circumstances of this case are viewed in their entirety, there is no doubt that [the litigant's] dilemma is the result of its own negligence and indifference to or disregard of the circuit court's process.\"" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill-2d/114/0209-01" ] }, { "cite": "359 Ill. App. 3d 143", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill. App. 3d", "case_ids": [ 5593937 ], "weight": 2, "year": 2005, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "147" }, { "page": "147", "parenthetical": "purpose of section 2 - 1401 petition is to make the trial court aware of facts not appearing in the record" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill-app-3d/359/0143-01" ] }, { "cite": "362 Ill. App. 3d 56", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill. App. 3d", "case_ids": [ 4260596 ], "weight": 6, "year": 2005, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "59" }, { "page": "59" }, { "page": "59" }, { "page": "60" }, { "page": "60" }, { "page": "64", "parenthetical": "reversing the trial court's order granting a litigant's section 2 - 1401 petition where, in pertinent part, the litigant failed to show due diligence and a meritorious defense" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill-app-3d/362/0056-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 549, "char_count": 13510, "ocr_confidence": 0.759, "pagerank": { "raw": 6.877405154541507e-08, "percentile": 0.4185089555414235 }, "sha256": "8e5875f53d57eb596c6fc2e79e3c68a7d7aff7a4db4354eb373a4af45ebb3235", "simhash": "1:babc3a9f5d048b20", "word_count": 2160 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T20:55:49.400377+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [], "parties": [ "PRENAM No. 2, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. THE VILLAGE OF SCHILLER PARK, Defendant-Appellant." ], "opinions": [ { "text": "JUSTICE CAMPBELL\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nDefendant Village of Schiller Park (the Village) appeals the circuit court order granting plaintiff Prenam No. 2, Inc.\u2019s motion to vacate a prior court order that dismissed plaintiff\u2019s fifth amended complaint against the Village, contending that plaintiff failed to satisfy the requirements for relief under section 2 \u2014 1401 of the Code of Civil Procedure. 735 ILCS 5/2 \u2014 1401 (West 2004) (the Code). Specifically, the Village asserts that plaintiff failed to state new facts that were not of record and failed to demonstrate due diligence. We reverse.\nIn November 2003, plaintiff filed a complaint for inverse condemnation and injunctive relief against the Village. The circuit court dismissed the complaint and granted plaintiff time to amend. Thereafter, plaintiff, which was initially represented by Gary Tucker and later represented by both Tucker and the firm of Weisberg Associates, Ltd. (Weisberg), filed a variety of pleadings, including successive amended complaints. In turn, the Village filed multiple responsive pleadings, including successive motions to dismiss plaintiffs various complaints.\nUltimately, on February 22, 2005, after various pleadings from the Village and plaintiff, the court allowed plaintiff to file a fifth amended complaint against the Village, which sought to quiet title to real property and injunctive relief. The subject property apparently operated as a hotel and the Village sought to acquire it for a redevelopment project, claiming the property was blighted and unmarketable. After a hearing, where no representative of plaintiff appeared, the court granted the Village\u2019s motion to dismiss plaintiffs fifth complaint on May 2, 2005 (hereinafter May 2 dismissal order).\nSubsequently, plaintiff filed two unsuccessful motions to vacate the May 2 dismissal order. The first motion to vacate was filed by Weisberg on May 13, 2005, and was denied by the court on May 19, 2005 (hereinafter May 19 denial order). The second motion to vacate was filed by Tucker on May 23, 2005, and withdrawn on June 6, 2005.\nOn June 29, 2005, plaintiff, through Tucker, filed a \u201cpetition\u201d pursuant to section 2 \u2014 1401 of the Code, seeking to vacate the court\u2019s May 2 dismissal order. In plaintiffs section 2 \u2014 1401 petition, plaintiff alleged that Tucker did not have notice of the hearing on Weisberg\u2019s motion to vacate, that Weisberg did not have authorization to file such a motion, and that Weisberg had been informed that Tucker would handle any motion to vacate the May 2 dismissal order. Plaintiff further alleged that when the court issued its May 19 denial order, \u201cthe court did not know nor was it advised it had previously denied [the Village\u2019s] motion to dismiss Count I (color of title) as presented by Gary Tucker.\u201d Plaintiff asserted that the court\u2019s May 2 dismissal order \u201cis in error and not based upon all the facts, that, if known by the court, would have prevented entry of [the May 2 dismissal order].\u201d Based on these assertions, plaintiff requested the court to vacate its May 2 dismissal order.\nPlaintiff attached to its petition the affidavit of Babu Patel, who attested that he was the president of successor plaintiff Bestway. Patel attested that he hired Weisberg for the \u201csole purpose\u201d of \u201ccompelling\u201d the Village to issue plaintiff certain usage permits related to the property. Patel further attested that after he learned of the court\u2019s May 2 dismissal order, he contacted Weisberg and told Weisberg that Tucker would handle the motion to vacate the dismissal order. Patel acknowledged that Weisberg filed a motion to vacate the May 2 dismissal order, but attested that \u201c[a]t no time was [Weisberg] authorized by [plaintiff] to present the motion to vacate the [May 2 dismissal order].\u201d\nThe Village filed a response to plaintiffs section 2\u20141401 petition, alleging primarily that plaintiff failed to meet the requirements for relief under section 2\u20141401 of the Code. Specifically, the Village asserted that plaintiff failed to allege new facts that were not already contained in the record and failed to demonstrate due diligence in presenting the defense.\nIn reply, plaintiff asserted that the petition met the requirements of section 2\u20141401. Specifically, plaintiff stated that it demonstrated a meritorious defense or claim in that the fifth complaint contained a quiet title claim, which was the same type of claim contained in a prior complaint which had survived the Village\u2019s motion to dismiss. Plaintiff further stated that it exercised due diligence in filing its section 2 \u2014 1401 petition and filing its fifth complaint. Plaintiff also claimed that \u201c[t]hrough a misunderstanding and/or the misdocketing by [plaintiff\u2019s counsel, no attorney appeared for [p]laintiff at the May 2, 2005, hearing, resulting in [the circuit] court\u2019s order dismissing the entire action.\u201d\nIn August 2005, the circuit court granted plaintiff\u2019s section 2 \u2014 1401 petition. The court stated that it agreed with plaintiff\u2019s argument that the court would not have dismissed the fifth complaint had it known that a claim to quiet title had previously survived one of the Village\u2019s prior motions to dismiss. The court found, in pertinent part, as follows:\n\u201cPlaintiff exercised due diligence in originally attempting to vacate [the May 2 dismissal order] by filing a timely motion to vacate. Due diligence was exercised in presenting this \u00a72 \u2014 1401 petition. Plaintiff has shown a meritorious claim because its claim to quiet title has already survived a motion to dismiss. Also, this court would not have dismissed plaintiffs complaint *** if plaintiff had appeared and informed the court that a similar motion had previously been denied. Accordingly, plaintiffs \u00a72 \u2014 1401 petition is granted and the [dismissal] order of 5/2/05 is vacated.\u201d\nOn appeal, the Village contends that the circuit court erred in granting plaintiffs section 2 \u2014 1401 petition to vacate the court\u2019s May 2 dismissal order because plaintiff failed to satisfy the requirements for relief. Specifically, the Village asserts that plaintiff failed to state new facts that were not of record and failed to demonstrate due diligence.\nSection 2 \u2014 1401 of the Code details a statutory procedure which allows final judgments to be vacated. Ameritech Publishing of Illinois, Inc. v. Hadyeh, 362 Ill. App. 3d 56, 59 (2005). The purpose of a section 2 \u2014 1401 petition is to make the circuit court aware of facts not appearing in the record which, if known to the court at the time of judgment, would have prevented the court\u2019s entry of judgment. Beauchamp v. Zimmerman, 359 Ill. App. 3d 143, 147 (2005). In order to receive relief under section 2 \u2014 1401, a petition must affirmatively allege specific facts to support each of the following elements: (1) the existence of a meritorious defense or claim; (2) due diligence presenting this defense or claim to the circuit court in the original action; and (3) due diligence in filing the section 2 \u2014 1401 petition seeking relief. Ameritech, 362 Ill. App. 3d at 59, citing Smith v. Airoom, Inc., 114 Ill. 2d 209, 220-21 (1986). The petition must also be supported by affidavit or other appropriate showing as to matters not of record. 735 ILCS 5/2 \u2014 1401(b) (West 2004). A circuit court has discretion to rule upon a section 2 \u2014 1401 petition, which depends upon the facts and equities presented. Smith, 114 Ill. 2d at 221. Therefore, a reviewing court may disturb the circuit court\u2019s ruling on a section 2 \u2014 1401 petition only if it finds that the circuit court abused its discretion. Smith, 114 Ill. 2d at 221.\nIn addition, because section 2 \u2014 1401 is not intended to relieve a litigant of the consequences of his mistake or negligence, a litigant must establish that his failure to defend against the underlying legal action was the result of an excusable mistake and that he acted reasonably under the circumstances, as opposed to negligently, when the litigant failed to initially resist the judgment. Smith, 114 Ill. 2d at 222. Accordingly, a litigant is generally not entitled to relief under section 2 \u2014 1401 \u201cwhere [that litigant] negligently failed to assert a defense or make facts known to the court prior to the entry of judgment.\u201d Ameritech, 362 Ill. App. 3d at 59.\nAfter reviewing the record in this case, we find that plaintiff\u2019s specific factual allegations in his section 2 \u2014 1401 petition were insufficient to entitle plaintiff to relief. First, contrary to the purpose of section 2 \u2014 1401, plaintiff based its defense on a matter that was apparent from the record. See Beauchamp, 359 Ill. App. 3d at 147 (purpose of section 2 \u2014 1401 petition is to make the trial court aware of facts not appearing in the record). Here, plaintiff solely relied upon one of the circuit court\u2019s previous orders, which pertained to plaintiffs prior complaint to quiet title and denied the Village\u2019s motion to dismiss that complaint. Moreover, plaintiff\u2019s prior pleadings, including the previous claim to quiet title, were no longer properly before the court because plaintiff effectively abandoned those prior pleadings by filing the fifth amended complaint without incorporating or referring to the prior pleadings. Pappas v. Pella Corp., 363 Ill. App. 3d 795, 801 (2006), citing Foxcroft Townhome Owners Ass\u2019n v. Hoffman Rosner Corp., 96 Ill. 2d 150, 153-54 (1983). Thus, where plaintiff asserted its meritorious defense based upon issues which were apparent from the record and were no longer at issue due to plaintiffs subsequent pleadings, we cannot find that plaintiff sufficiently alleged a meritorious defense under section 2 \u2014 1401.\nSecond, plaintiff failed to plead sufficient facts to establish that it acted diligently in bringing the particular defense to the circuit court\u2019s attention. Most significantly, as both the circuit court and plaintiff recognized, the primary reason that the court was not aware of its prior order on plaintiff\u2019s previous pleadings was because plaintiff failed to appear at the hearing and inform the court.\nAccording to plaintiff, the reason it did not appear at the hearing was due to a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d or \u201cmisdocketing\u201d by its legal counsel. However, a litigant is ordinarily bound by the negligence of his legal counsel. Ameritech, 362 Ill. App. 3d at 60. Additionally, although a circuit court may decline to impute counsel\u2019s negligence to a litigant in the existence of mitigating circumstances, this court has observed that relaxation of the due diligence requirement under section 2 \u2014 1401 is \u201cjustified only under extraordinary circumstances.\u201d Ameritech, 362 Ill. App. 3d at 60. Here, plaintiffs section 2 \u2014 1401 petition does not allege, nor does the record contain, any mitigating circumstances that would reasonably justify the relaxation of the due diligence requirements, or otherwise establish that plaintiffs failure to attend the hearing on the motion to dismiss was due to anything other than the negligence of plaintiff or its counsel. See Smith, 114 Ill. 2d at 224-25 (concluding \u201c[w]hen all of the circumstances of this case are viewed in their entirety, there is no doubt that [the litigant\u2019s] dilemma is the result of its own negligence and indifference to or disregard of the circuit court\u2019s process.\u201d)\nAccordingly, where plaintiff failed to show a meritorious defense and failed to show that it exercised due diligence in bringing this matter to the attention of the trial court, we conclude that plaintiff failed to plead sufficient specific factual allegations to entitle plaintiff to relief under section 2 \u2014 1401 of the Code. Therefore, we find that the trial court abused its discretion in granting plaintiffs section 2 \u2014 1401 petition to vacate the May 2 dismissal order. See Ameritech, 362 Ill. App. 3d at 64 (reversing the trial court\u2019s order granting a litigant\u2019s section 2 \u2014 1401 petition where, in pertinent part, the litigant failed to show due diligence and a meritorious defense).\nWe are not persuaded by plaintiffs argument that the trial court \u201cmerely\u201d corrected an error it had made when it granted plaintiffs section 2 \u2014 1401 petition. Notably, regardless of any alleged error committed by the circuit court in this case, plaintiff was still required to provide sufficient allegations to entitle it to relief under section 2 \u2014 1401 of the Code. Further, plaintiffs reference to this court\u2019s decisions involving the revestment doctrine is misplaced because that doctrine is not relevant to the issues presented in this case. See, e.g., Allstate Insurance Co. v. Anderson, 329 Ill. App. 3d 93, 96 (2002) (discussing the revestment doctrine).\nFor the foregoing reasons, we reverse the judgment of the circuit court and remand to reinstate the judgment in favor of the Village.\nReversed and remanded.\nQUINN, EJ., and GREIMAN, J., concur.\nThe successor plaintiff in this action is the corporate entity identified as \u201cBestway Investment, Corp. and O\u2019Hare Inn & Suites, LLC.,\u201d which is generally referred to as \u201cBestway.\u201d\nIn plaintiffs petition, plaintiff provides incorrect dates for a number of its prior filings and the court\u2019s prior orders. Based on our review of the record, our order references accurate dates.", "type": "majority", "author": "JUSTICE CAMPBELL" } ], "attorneys": [ "Raysa & Zimmermann, LLC, of Park Ridge (Michael F. Zimmermann and Carolyn V Lees, of counsel), for appellant.", "Gary Tucker, of Highland Park, for appellee." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "PRENAM No. 2, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. THE VILLAGE OF SCHILLER PARK, Defendant-Appellant.\nFirst District (4th Division)\nNo. 1\u201405\u20143025\nOpinion filed August 17, 2006.\nRaysa & Zimmermann, LLC, of Park Ridge (Michael F. Zimmermann and Carolyn V Lees, of counsel), for appellant.\nGary Tucker, of Highland Park, for appellee." }, "file_name": "0062-01", "first_page_order": 80, "last_page_order": 85 }