Edwards v. City of Chicago

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Illinois

Court: 1st District Appellate

Docket No: 1-07-0741 Rel

Case Date: 03/24/2009

Preview:SECOND DIVISION MARCH 24, 2009

1-07-0741 ELMORE EDWARDS, ALAN GARANT, BELINDA JOHNSON, LIZETTE LOZADO, SANDRA MENDIOLA-KUNIS, ANDRE REYES, FRANK SARABIA, GLORIA THOMPSON, and STEVEN VRTIS, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. THE CITY OF CHICAGO, a Municipal Corporation, Defendant-Appellee. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County.

No. 98 CH 2475

Honorable Anthony Young and James R. Epstein, Judges Presiding.

JUSTICE CUNNINGHAM delivered the opinion of the court: This is an interlocutory appeal, pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (210 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)), from a July 6, 2006 order of the circuit court of Cook County. That order granted partial summary judgment for the defendant-appellee, City of Chicago (the City), on one portion of the complaint by plaintiffs-appellants (certain Chicago police officers, as set out below). That part of the complaint alleged that the City committed the intentional tort of conversion of their property when, without proper authorization or legal authority, it filed liens to recover line-of-duty medical expenses paid on behalf of plaintiffs-appellants pursuant to municipal ordinances of the City. 1 These liens were filed against judgments obtained by the police officer plaintiffs from third parties who had injured them. The named plaintiffs are Chicago police officers Elmore Edwards, Alan Garant, A second portion of the complaint alleged that from 1997 to 2001 the City improperly filed similar liens against Chicago police officers for reimbursement of wages paid them by the City for lost work time caused by on-duty and off-duty injuries. That portion of the complaint is still pending in the circuit court of Cook County.
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1-07-0741 Belinda Johnson, Lizette Lozada, Sandra Mendiola-Kunis, Andre Reyes, Frank Sarabia, Gloria Thompson, and Steven Vrtis. They are the class representatives for the court-certified class of all current and former Chicago police officers who were subject to medical-expense liens, excluding those whose claims concerning medical-expense liens that had already been adjudicated by a court. Following its order granting partial summary judgment for the plaintiffs, the circuit court2 entered the appropriate Rule 304(a) language and the plaintiffs brought this appeal. The plaintiffs contend that the City had no authority to file the liens against them. We affirm and remand for further proceedings. BACKGROUND The facts are not in dispute. The named plaintiffs are Chicago police officers injured in the line of duty by the wrongdoing of third parties. Since at least 1974, the City has filed liens seeking reimbursement of medical expenses which the City paid to Chicago police officers for line-of-duty injuries. These liens are only filed when the injured officer has recovered damages from a third party. Plaintiffs-appellants Sarabia, Johnson, and Thompson had only wage liens and not medicalexpense liens filed against them as of the date this appeal was filed. The City has not challenged their status as appellants in this court. Accordingly we will not disturb that designation, but for simplicity will refer to all the plaintiffs-appellants as plaintiffs. Plaintiffs Edwards, Garant, Lozada, Mendiola-Kunis, Reyes, and Vrtis have all had money recovered by the City from damages due to

Judge Anthony Young presided over these proceedings through his issuance of the order of July 6, 2006, granting partial summary judgment for the City. The case was then heard by Judge James R. Epstein who, on February 26, 2007, denied the plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration and entered the Rule 304(a) finding rendering that judgment appealable. 2

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1-07-0741 them from third parties. The City recovered the money pursuant to liens which it filed for medical expenses the City paid to the plaintiffs. The money recovered by the City was paid voluntarily by the plaintiffs or their representatives. Plaintiff Garant's attorney paid the City the full lien amount of $1,895.30 in full settlement of that lien on December 2, 1994. Plaintiff Edwards' attorney negotiated a reduced payment of $4,752.82 from the City's lien of $16,399.57, and the City was paid on October 1, 1999. Plaintiff Vrtis' attorney also negotiated a lower payment to the City made on September 18, 2000, of $4,833.33 from a lien amount of $9,208.07. Plaintiffs Reyes and Lozado, through their attorney, after unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a lesser amount, on January 10, 2001, paid the City the full amount of their liens, $1,301.42 for Reyes and $1,336.20 for Lozado. Plaintiff Mendiola-Kunis' attorney obtained a release of the City's claim for reimbursement of medical expenses by paying the full amount requested, $4,519.05, on August 7, 2001. This action was first filed on February 25, 1998. At issue here is the fourth amended complaint, which was filed on August 27, 2001, and which alleges in pertinent part that the City has converted the property of the plaintiffs. The conversion is alleged to have been carried out by issuing liens and collecting funds from the plaintiffs as reimbursement for medical expenses paid by the City in instances where the plaintiffs had obtained recoveries from the third parties who injured them. The circuit court granted summary judgment for the City, finding that the plaintiffs could not establish the necessary element of absolute, immediate and unconditional right to the property at issue, which they alleged was converted. ANALYSIS Summary judgment may be granted only when, upon consideration of all the relevant 3

1-07-0741 pleadings, depositions, affidavits, and admissions, the court finds that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the party seeking the judgment is entitled to it as a matter of law. 735 ILCS 5/2-1005(c) (West 2006); Siklas v. Ecker Center for Mental Health, Inc., 248 Ill. App. 3d 124, 129, 617 N.E.2d 507, 510 (1993). We review an order of summary judgment de novo. Varela v. St. Elizabeth's Hospital of Chicago, Inc., 372 Ill. App. 3d 714, 722, 867 N.E.2d 1, 8 (2006). As we have noted, the relevant portion of the complaint sounds in tort and was brought on a theory of conversion. To prove that tort, a plaintiff must prove the following elements: (1) his right to the property; (2) that this right includes the absolute, unconditional right to immediate possession of the property; (3) he has demanded possession of the property; and (4) the defendant took control or claimed ownership of the property wrongfully and without authorization. Cirrincione v. Johnson, 184 Ill. 2d 109, 114, 703 N.E.2d 67, 70 (1998); Cruthis v. Firstar Bank, N.A., 354 Ill. App. 3d 1122, 1131, 822 N.E.2d 454, 463 (2004). The circuit court found that the plaintiffs, as a matter of law, could not establish that they had an immediate, absolute and unconditional right to possession of the property, specifically, the reimbursement funds recovered from them by the City. Because the plaintiffs could not establish this element of the tort of conversion, the circuit court granted summary judgment for the City. It is undisputed that Chicago is a home rule municipality, with the constitutional right to "exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government." Ill. Const. 1970, art. VII,

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