Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy

Senate Bill 3202

Topic: 
Community association fees
(Maloney, D-Chicago; Thapedi, D-Chicago) amends the Community Association Manager Licensing and Disciplinary Act. It requires all community associations pay to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation an annual fee of $50 plus an additional $1 per unit not to exceed an annual fee of $1,000 if they (1) have 10 or more units, (2) retain an individual to provide services as a community association manager for compensation, (3) are not master associations, or (4) are registered in the State as a not-for-profit corporation. Passed both chambers; effective immediately if the Governor signs it.
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Insureone Independent Insurance v. Hallberg

Insureone Independent Insurance v. Hallberg
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Contracts
Citation
Case Number: 
2012 IL App (1st) 092385
Decision Date: 
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
District: 
1st Dist.
Division/County: 
Cook Co., 3d Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed in part and reversed in part; remanded.
Justice: 
SALONE
Bench trial resolved disputes among purchasers and sellers of assets of several insurance companies. Plaintiffs' evidence of sales made by Defendants' competing agencies led to reasonable inference that Plaintiffs would have made a portion of these sales absent Defendants' competition, given undisputed evidence that Defendants opened stores in close proximity to Plaintiffs' stores in effort to target their customers. Thus, Plaintiffs showed that losses were causally related to Defendants' breaches of restrictive covenants, and that Plaintiffs had legitimate expectation that Defendants could not begin to form competing businesses until expiration of covenants. Court erred in granting summary judgment to a defendant who lacked standing to pursue his claim as to contingent purchase price payments. (STEELE and MURPHY, concurring.)

Nipponkoa Ins. Co., Ltd. v. Atlas Van Lines, Inc.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Nipponkoa Ins. Co., Ltd. v. Atlas Van Lines, Inc.
Civil Court
Carmack Amendment
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 11-3085
Decision Date: 
July 5, 2012
Federal District: 
S.D. Ind., Evansville Div.
Holding: 
Reversed and remanded
Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant-shipper’s motion for summary judgment in action seeking damages to plaintiff-insured’s expensive medical devices that were incurred while said devices were shipped to trade show, where Dist. Ct. found that contract between defendant and third-party acting on behalf of insured, as well as bill of lading, capped defendant’s liability to $0.60 per pound. While defendant argued that instant limitation of liability was consistent with Carmack Amendment, remand was required to determine whether plaintiff’s insured had reasonable opportunity to chose between $0.60 per pound liability cap or some other higher level of liability. Record also contained material issue as to whether instant third-party could bind plaintiff to limitation set forth in contract or bill of lading.

TH Davidson and Company v. Eidola Concrete

TH Davidson and Company v. Eidola Concrete
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Contracts
Citation
Case Number: 
2012 IL App (3d) 110641
Decision Date: 
Monday, July 2, 2012
District: 
3d Dist.
Division/County: 
Kankakee Co
Holding: 
Affirmed.
Justice: 
CARTER
Company sued concrete company and its co-manager for money owed on line of credit; court entered judgment in Plaintiff's favor for $5600. Although co-manager Defendant personally guaranteed only $1,000, the parties contemplated a future course of dealing through the contract ,contract contained no limiting language,co-manager's liability was for a continuing guaranty, and was not limited to $1,000. (SCHMIDT and McDADE, concurring.)

Tucker v. Soy Capital Bank and Trust

Tucker v. Soy Capital Bank and Trust
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Fraud
Citation
Case Number: 
2012 IL App (1st) 103303
Decision Date: 
Thursday, June 28, 2012
District: 
1st Dist.
Division/County: 
Cook Co., 4th Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed.
Justice: 
PUCINSKI
Plaintiffs opened IRAs with Defendant bank, and sued bank for losses as result of alleged Ponzi scheme by owner of fund in which they invested their IRAs. Court did not err in dismissing all claims against bank, as IRA agreement signed by Plaintiffs specifically provided that bank had no duty to investigate actual value of funds, and contained release and hold harmless language. (LAVIN and FITZGERALD SMITH, concurring.)

In re: Griffen Trading Co.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
In re: Griffen Trading Co.
Civil Court
Bankruptcy
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 10-3607
Decision Date: 
June 25, 2012
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Reversed and remanded
In Bankruptcy proceeding filed by Trustee seeking to hold debtor’s partners liable for losses incurred by debtor when partners allowed segregated customer funds to be used to help cover debtor’s losses in certain trading transactions that were subject to margin call, Dist. Ct. erred in reversing initial Bankruptcy Ct. order that found partners’ failure to stop certain wire transfer that paid margin call from said segregated customer funds constituted violation of 17 CFR section 30.7, as well as violation of partners’ fiduciary duties to their customers. Record supported initial finding that partners knew about margin call and yet took no action to prevent wire transfer containing customers’ segregated funds. Moreover, record suggested that customer funds had been source for payment of $3 million margin call where debtor’s account was under-funded by $7 million on day of transfer.

Senate Bill 3552

Topic: 
Personal property exemptions
(Sandack, R-Lombard; Mathias, R-Buffalo Grove) exempts from judgment a revocable or irrevocable trust that names the wife or husband of the insured or which names child, parent, or other person dependent upon the insured as the primary beneficiary of the trust. Passed both chambers.
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Public Act 97-689

Topic: 
Medicaid eligibility rules
(Feigenholtz, D-Chicago; Steans, D-Chicago) is supposed to eliminate Illinois’ $2.7 billion Medicaid funding gap. It repeals the compromise of the Medicaid eligibility rules negotiated last fall between the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Some of these changes include the following: (1) A home transferred into a trust after the bill becomes law may not be considered homestead property. If the home was transferred into a trust before the bill becomes law, it prevents a person from being eligible for long-term care if the person’s equity interest in this homestead exceeds the minimum home equity as allowed under federal law. (2) People over the age of 65 can no longer participate in a federally created OBRA Pooled Trust unless the beneficiary is a ward of the county public guardian or the State guardian. These parts of this Act (in Section 75) took effect June 14, 2012.
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