Barajas v. BCN Technical Services, Inc.

Interlocutory appeal arising out of a personal injury lawsuit naming dissolved corporations as additional defendants more than five years after their dissolution. The circuit court certified two questions pursuant to SCR 308 seeking to determine the viability and timeliness of the claims against the dissolved corporations. The appellate court declined to answer the first certified question—whether section 12.80 of the Illinois Business Corporation Act applies retroactively in a cause of action against a corporation where the plaintiff sustained injury after the defendant corporation dissolved—finding that the question erroneously focused on retroactivity of the statute where plaintiff’s claim accrued after the amended statute’s effective date and, as a result, applied prospectively to plaintiff’s claims. As for the second question, the appellate court modified the question and answered it in the affirmative, holding that where all conditions are met under section 2-616(d), a dissolved corporation not originally named as a defendant may be added as a defendant notwithstanding the expiration of section 12.80’s five-year post-dissolution period. (BRENNAN and PETERSON, concurring)