Skip to Main Content

December 20, 2023
By: , Riccardo A. DiMonte

Thomas J. Cassady and Riccardo A. DiMonte won two decisions of the appellate court for firm clients in connection with collection matters. For the first decision, the Circuit Court terminated citations issued to third-party citation respondents regarding a judgment now due in the amount of $12 million, because the plaintiff/creditor allegedly violated the “six-month automatic expiration period” of Supreme Court Rule 277. Our office appealed on behalf of the creditor and the Appellate Court reversed, stating that oral requests at each status hearing continuing the citations were good enough for the citations to be continued beyond the automatic expiration period. The Appellate Court overturned the Circuit Court’s decision that a formal request for extension was required. Therefore, the Court held a relaxed standard applies when considering the automatic expiration provisions of Supreme Court Rule 277.  For the second decision, the debtors in a supplementary proceeding had argued that there was no judgment against them because a judicial foreclosure sale order eliminated the prior personal judgment against them, in the same case. The Circuit Court in Will County did not agree with that argument and held that a judgment on a guaranty is a separate judgment from a foreclosure judgment, even when entered within the case proceeding. The debtor argued that the Court should have re-entered the judgment on the guaranty at the end of the foreclosure, but the Circuit Court did not require that action.   The Court also agreed with the plaintiff/creditor that the judgment is still pending/outstanding. The Appellate Court affirmed that decision. Therefore, the judgment is still pending, and the plaintiff/creditor can proceed with its collection efforts on an $8 million judgment.