Vision Point of Sale v. Haas

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Illinois

Docket No: 103140 Rel

Case Date: 09/20/2007

Preview:Docket No. 103140.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

VISION POINT OF SALE, INC., an Illinois Corporation, Appellee, v. GINGER HAAS et al., Appellants. Opinion filed September 20, 2007.

JUSTICE FREEMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Fitzgerald, Kilbride, Garman, Karmeier, and Burke concurred in the judgment and opinion. Chief Justice Thomas took no part in the decision.

OPINION The circuit court of Cook County certified the following question of law: "In determining whether `good cause' exists under Supreme Court Rule 183 for the grant of an extension of time to remedy an unintentional noncompliance with a procedural requirement, may the court take into consideration facts and circumstances of record that go beyond the reason for noncompliance?" The appellate court answered this question in the affirmative. 366 Ill. App. 3d 692. We granted leave to appeal (210 Ill. 2d R. 315). For the reasons that follow, we disagree with the appellate court. We hold

that in determining whether good cause exists under Rule 183 to support an extension of time allowing a party to comply with a deadline set forth in our rules, the circuit court may not take into consideration facts and circumstances in the case that go beyond the reason for noncompliance. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the appellate court and remand this cause to the circuit court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. BACKGROUND This interlocutory appeal has its genesis in a February 2004 complaint filed in the circuit court of Cook County by plaintiff, Vision Point of Sale, Inc., against defendants Legacy Incorporated (Legacy) and Ginger Haas. Both plaintiff and Legacy are engaged in the sale and refurbishing of used point-of-sale equipment,1 and therefore are in direct competition for customers. In its complaint, plaintiff alleged that it had hired Haas in January 2002 to serve as the executive secretary to plaintiff's Chief Executive Officer Frank Muscarello. According to plaintiff's complaint, Haas had access to plaintiff's confidential and proprietary information, including its customer lists and databases, customer-contact information containing private and cellular telephone numbers and email addresses, and customer order, pricing and equipment information. The complaint alleged that Haas resigned from plaintiff and began employment immediately thereafter with Legacy, taking plaintiff's confidential and propriety information with her. Plaintiff further alleged that "Haas stole such information at the direction or with the encouragement of Legacy," with the ultimate intent of soliciting plaintiff's customers. Plaintiff's complaint sought damages from both Haas and Legacy for breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with plaintiff's business relationships, unjust enrichment, and violation of the Illinois Trade Secrets Act (765 ILCS 1065/1 et seq. (West 2002)). Plaintiff requested that the court, inter alia, permanently enjoin defendants

"Point of Sale" equipment is used by businesses to relay information from one point to another, i.e. , from a retail customer checkout station to a centralized inventory management system or to a printer.

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from using its confidential and proprietary information for the benefit of Legacy. Plaintiff also sought a preliminary injunction against defendants, requesting that the circuit court prevent any misappropriation of plaintiff's confidential and proprietary customer information. After conducting an evidentiary hearing on plaintiff's motion, the circuit court entered a preliminary injunction against defendants to maintain the status quo pending the outcome of plaintiff's suit. In addition, the circuit court entered several orders that set forth procedures intended to protect plaintiff's confidential information and provided a timetable by which the court expected defendants' compliance.2 For the next several months, the litigation between the parties focused upon defendants' failure to comply with the court's preliminary injunction orders. As a result, the circuit court held additional hearings and entered another order detailing with greater specificity the method by which its preliminary injunction order was to be implemented, including an updated timetable for compliance. During this period, proceedings with respect to plaintiff's complaint for a permanent injunction were also moving forward. On December 14, 2004, defendants sent to plaintiff their "Rule 216 Request for Admission of Facts," which consisted of 65 separate requests for admission. Defendants did not file their requests to admit with the clerk of the circuit court of Cook County at the time of service, contrary to Rule 3.1(c) of the circuit court of Cook County (Cook Co. Cir. Ct. R. 3.1(c) (eff. May 1, 1996)). Plaintiff timely responded to each of defendants' requests to admit on January 12, 2005. The final page of plaintiff's responses was signed by plaintiff's counsel on behalf of plaintiff. On the page immediately following the last page of responses, Muscarello signed a verification of the responses, which tracked the language set forth in section 1

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