Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy

(Flowers, D-Chicago) and House Bill 162 (Chapia LaVia, D-Aurora) makes a number of changes to the Small Estate Affidavit statute. (1) Requires that the affidavit state that the burial and funeral expenses, medical bills, credit card bills, and real property taxes (instead of funeral expenses) have been or remain to be paid. (2) Makes a number of changes if there is a surviving spouse as follows. (a) If there is a surviving spouse, and the surviving spouse is unable to prepare the small estate affidavit or has declined to do so, the affiant must state the reason that the affiant has prepared the small estate affidavit rather than the surviving spouse. (b) If the reason for the surviving spouse's inability to prepare the affidavit is medically related, a letter from the surviving spouse's physician should be attached attesting to that effect. (c) If the surviving spouse is the affiant, he or she shall affirm that he or she was not separated from the decedent (3) If there is no surviving spouse and there is one or more minor children, the affiant must be a court-appointed guardian for one or more of the children. Referred to House Rules Committee.

(Trotter, D-Chicago; Harris, D-Chicago) creates a $10 fee to be paid by civil litigants who file an appearance and defendants who are convicted or plead guilty to any felony, misdemeanor, traffic, municipal, or conservation offense to pay for the Supreme Court E-Business Plan. The E-Business Plan is to develop and maintain an automated point-of-access case and statistics management system. It will will include applications for e-filing, e-guilty, and e-signatures as well as trial court and probation data exchanges. Senate Bill 1746 is scheduled for hearing in House Judiciary Committee on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013.

(Burke, D-Evergreen Park; Mulroe, D-Chicago) does three things in response to the LaSalle Bank National Association vs. Cypress Creek opinion. (1) Requires that the owner or interested person’s demand for suit to be commenced or answered within 30 days must contain this language in at least 10-point, boldface type: “Failure to respond to this notice within 30 days after receipt, as required by Section 34 of the Mechanics Lien Act, shall result in the forfeiture of the referenced lien.” (2) Defines a “lien creditor” as someone who does work or furnishes material under this Act for improvements. A lien creditor is preferred over other encumbrances except that previous encumbrances are preferred only to the extent of the value of the land at the time the contract was made for the improvements, and each lien creditor is preferred to the value of all later improvements regardless of whether the lien creditor provided those improvements. (3) If the sale proceeds are insufficient to satisfy claims of both prior encumbrances and lien creditors, the sale proceeds are to be distributed as follows: (a) Any previous encumbrance has a paramount lien in the portion of the proceeds attributable to the value of the land at the time of making of the contract for improvements. (b) Any lien creditors have a paramount lien in the portion of the proceeds attributable to all later improvements made to the property. It has an immediate effective date. House Bill 3636 is in the House awaiting concurrence on Senate Amendment No. 2.

(Collins, D-Chicago; Lyons, D-Chicago) creates an expedited judgment and sale procedure for abandoned residential property. An additional filing fee will be imposed on plaintiffs in a tiered system in which the fees increase in proportion to the number of foreclosures a plaintiff prosecutes. The fees will also pay for "housing counseling" for residents who are going through the foreclosure process in effort to help them save their homes. Clarifies that a portion of the Conveyances Act is permissive instead of mandatory to prevent that portion of the Act from affecting the validity of a properly recorded mortgage by a trustee in bankruptcy. House Amendment 8 becomes the bill and is positioned to move during this veto session.

(Mulroe, D-Chicago; Lang, D-Skokie) carves out an exception to the prohibition against a title insurance company, title insurance agent, or independent escrowee making disbursements in connection with any escrows, settlements, or closings out of a fiduciary trust account or accounts. The exception that Senate Bill 3180 creates is if the funds are good funds and the title insurance company, title insurance agent, or independent escrowee and the financial institution are known to each other and agree to the use of these funds. Passed the Senate this spring and scheduled for a hearing Tuesday in House Executive Committee.