Illinois Supreme Court Civil Issues Pending: Government Law
[UPDATED THROUGH DECEMBER 24, 2011]
Innovative Modular Solutions v. Hazel Crest School District 152.5
Supreme Court Case Number: 112052
Appellate Court: First District, Division Three
Appellate Court Case Number: 1-10-0212, 1-10-0554 and 1-10-0642
Issue Presented: Must the defendant School District pay contractual cancellation fees to the plaintiff where the State has invoked the School Finance Law, 105 ILCS 5/1F-1, creating a School Finance Authority with sole control over the District's finances, and the Authority has both cancelled the leases at issue and given the District no authority to pay the cancellation fees?
Appellate Court Opinion Summary: In July 2002, the District leased certain portable classrooms, with the contract providing for penalty payments for early cancellation. Later, the State invoked the School Finance Law, 105 ILCS 5/1F-1, which gave the Hazel Crest School District Finance Authority sole financial control over the District, including the power to cancel contracts. In February 2004, the Authority cancelled the classroom leases. Plaintiff sued the District and the Authority, seeking a declaratory judgment that the leases could only be cancelled in accord with the cancellation provisions; a judgment striking down the School Finance Law as applied; and damages for breach of contract. The trial court granted partial summary judgment, finding that the Authority's action excused the District's performance based on commercial frustration. Nevertheless, the trial court later held on the dec relief claim that the School Finance Law did not give the Authority the power to cancel the plaintiff's rights under the cancellation clauses. The Appellate Court reversed the declaratory judgment, holding that the trial court's finding that the Authority's action frustrated the District's performance necessarily mooted the dec relief count. The Court then affirmed the judgment on the breach of contract count, finding that the District's performance was rendered legally impossible by the Authority's action.
Lemmenes v. Orland Fire Protection District & Gaffney v. Board of Trustees of the Orland Fire Protection District
Supreme Court Case Numbers: 110198, 110012
Appellate Courts: First District, 2nd Division (Lemmenes); First District, Sixth Division (Gaffney)
Appellate Court Case Numbers: 1-09-1133 (Lemmenes); 1-09-0046 (Gaffney)
Issue Presented: Under what circumstances does a firefighter participating in a training exercise “reasonably believe[ ]” he or she is responding to “an emergency” for purposes of Section 10 of the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act, which provides that firefighters injured under such circumstances are entitled to continued payment of health insurance premiums on behalf of the injured firefighter, his or her spouse, and each dependent child?
Appellate Court Opinions Summary: These cases were consolidated by the Supreme Court when leave to appeal was allowed. In Lemmenes, plaintiff was told to respond in the exercise as if it were an actual emergency, and that a firefighter was trapped inside the building, was running out of air, and his life was in imminent danger. Plaintiff was not informed that the training exercise was designed such that participating firefighters would likely fail, and was intended to demonstrate that rescue techniques for residential settings would be ineffective in an industrial building. The Appellate Court held that plaintiff was injured in responding to what he reasonably believed to be an emergency, affirming the Circuit Court. In Gaffney, the plaintiff was injured during the course of a similar training exercise while trying to free a tangled hose line. The Appellate Court held that Plaintiff was not injured while responding to what he reasonably believed was an emergency, noting that instructions to treat a training exercise as if it were an emergency did not make it one. Justice Gordon dissented.
Citations to Opinions: 2010 WL 1133028 (Lemmenes)
397 Ill.App.3d 679, 921 N.E.2d 778, 336 Ill. Dec. 922 (Gaffney)
