ADR and Mediation

Plaintiffs contracted with Defendant to purchase a newly constructed home. The closing was delayed, and Plaintiffs filed suit. Case was transferred to commercial calendar mandatory arbitration, and arbitrator found in favor of Plaintiffs. Court entered judgment on all counts although arbitrator did not make individual findings on any count, stating, "judgment in favor of plaintiffs and against defendants in the amount of $59,500.00. Local Rule 25.11 provides that absent rejection, the circuit court is to enter judgment on the arbitrator's award. Court entered judgment for fraud in the inducement (which was one of the counts of the complaint) but without any findings of fraud, and thus there was no basis for entering a judgment on that count.(GRIFFIN and PIERCE, concurring.)

Court granted one Defendant's petition to vacate a default judgment pursuant to section 2-1401 of Code of Civil Procedure, and denied Plaintiff's petition for attorney fees against the other Defendant. Appellate court lacks jurisdiction to review order granting section 2-1401 petition as Plaintiff did not file a notice of appeal within 30 days of entry of order. Court did not abuse its discretion by denying Plaintiff additional attorney fees. After default judgment was vacated, Plaintiff's claims were submitted to mandatory court-annexed arbitration. No party rejected the arbitration award. Plaintiff, after prevailing at arbitration, could have rejected arbitration award if it was not satisfied with the award because its attorney fees were inadequate. (HYMAN and WALKER, concurring.)

Plaintiff insurer filed subrogation action to recover property damages as a result of vehicle collisions between its insured and Defendant driver. At mandatory arbitration hearing, insurer failed to comply with Defendant’s request to produce insurer’s adjuster. Arbitration panel denied Defendant’s request for a bad faith finding against insurer. Court abused its discretion when it barred insurer from presenting any evidence or testimony at trial based on insurer’s failure to produce its adjuster at arbitration. This broad sanction was not related or confined to insurer’s failure to produce its adjuster and impermissibly extended to other issues in the case.   (REYES and BURKE, concurring.)

Plaintiff, a resident of Georgia, filed personal injury case for injuries from motor vehicle accident; matter was subject to nonbinding mandatory arbitration. During the morning of the arbitration hearing, Plaintiff called her attorney to advise that she was driving to hearing from Georgia but would arrive late due to a snowstorm en route.  Plaintiff's counsel then proceeded with the hearing in her absence, while another attorney from that office presented an emergency motion for extension of time which court denied it because arbitration hearing had already begun. Plaintiff (who arrived 4 hours after hearing had begun) made requisite showing that her failure to appear was not in bad faith, and was not found to be a deliberate and pronounced disregard for the rules and the court. Court abused its discretion in imposing sanction of precluding Plaintiff from rejecting the arbitration award entered for Defendant. (MIKVA and WALKER, concurring.)

Plaintiff filed civil complaint against several defendants based on his purchase of a vehicle. Court properly granted dealership's motion to compel arbitration, after finding that Plaintiff signed arbitration agreement as part of his vehicle purchase.Section 2(a) of the Uniform Arbitration Act calls for only a summary determination of the issues, and does not require an evidentiary hearing. Hearing on motion to compel arbitration was sufficient. Court's factual finding that Plaintiff signed arbitration agreement was a substantive determination of whether it was valid and whether it was forged.Court did not abuse its discreiton in granting motion to compel.(HOLDRIDGE, concurring; McDADE, dissenting.)