Krozel v. Illinois Court of ClaimsKrozel v. Illinois Court of Claims
Nixon Peabody LLP, of Chicago (Floyd D. Perkins, of counsel), for appellant.
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, of Chicago (David L. Franklin, Solicitor General, and Frank H. Bieszczat, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), for appellees.
OPINION
¶ 1 Plaintiff, Lainie Krozel, appeals the order of the circuit court granting defendants’ motion to dismiss her complaint for writ of certiorari, which sought review of the Court of Claims’ dismissal of her indemnity claim. On appeal, plaintiff contends her complaint should be reinstated beсause (1) the Court of Claims erroneously applied the two-year general statute of limitations contained in section 22(h) of the Court of Claims Act (
JURISDICTION
¶ 3 The trial court dismissed plaintiff‘s complaint on May 17, 2016. Plaintiff filed a motion to reconsider and vacate, which the trial court denied on June 23, 2016. Plaintiff filed her notice of appeal on July 21, 2016. Accordingly, this court has jurisdiction pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 301 (eff. Feb. 1, 1994) and Rule 303 (eff. May 30, 2008) governing appeals from final judgments entered below.
BACKGROUND
¶ 5 The following facts are relevant to this appeal. On December 12, 2008, the offiсe of the Executive Inspector General (EIG) filed a complaint with the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission (EEC) alleging that plaintiff, the acting chief of staff for the Illinois Department of Revenue, violated the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act (
¶ 6 On March 5, 2014, plaintiff filed a claim with the Court of Claims to recover her costs and attorney fees under sеction 2(b). The State filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to section 2-619 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (
¶ 8 After the Court of Claims heard argument from both parties on the issue, it dismissed plaintiff‘s claim in its entirety. The Court of Claims acknowledged that the appropriate statute of limitations for claims arising under the Indemnification Act is an issue of “first impression.” It noted that the Indemnification Act encompasses statutory duties “distinct from other theories of liability.” Therefore, it concluded that plaintiff‘s “potential right to reimbursement pursuant to the Indemnification Act is independent from the underlying contract with the State of Illinois.” It applied the two-year limitations period because plaintiff‘s right to recovery arose from a statute rather than a contract, and since plaintiff did not file her claim within two years of April 2011, when her reimbursement request was denied, her claim was untimely.
¶ 9 Plaintiff filed a petition for rehearing in which she again alleged that her claim arose out of a contract and therefore the five-year limitations period of section 22(a) applied. Plaintiff argued that her right to indemnification under the Indemnification Act arose from her employment and service; therefore, it was a matter arising out of contract. The State filed a response, and plaintiff replied, reiterating her argument that her claim is a contract claim. The Court of Claims denied the petition and upheld its previous order dismissing plaintiff‘s complaint as untimely. In the order, the Court of Claims disagreed that “the Indemni[fication] Act must be construed as a contractuаl term of [plaintiff‘s] employment with the State.” It found that “[t]he law is clear. Statutes are presumed not to create contractual rights unless there is clear and explicit intent to do so by the legislature. The Indemni[fication] Act does not demonstrate a clear and explicit intent by the legislature to create a vested contractual right.” The Court of Claims found “unconvincing” plaintiff‘s argument that the word “agreement” in the latter part of section 2(a) of the Indemnification Act (
¶ 10 Plaintiff filed a complaint for writ of certiorari, seeking review and reversal of the Court of Claims’ decision. In her complaint, plaintiff alleged that the Court of
¶ 11 The trial court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss and found the following cases controlling: Klopfer v. Court of Claims, 286 Ill. App. 3d 499 (1997), Reyes v. Court of Claims, 299 Ill. App. 3d 1097 (1998), and Hyde Park Medical Laboratory, Inc. v. Court of Claims, 259 Ill. App. 3d 889 (1994). Plaintiff filed a motion to reconsider which the trial court denied. Plaintiff filed this timely appeal.
ANALYSIS
¶ 13 On appeal, plaintiff contends that the Court of Clаims erroneously applied the two-year statute of limitations to dismiss her indemnification claim against defendants. She argues that the Court of Claims’ improper dismissal denied her the right to be heard on the merits of her claim and, since she alleged this violation of her due process rights, the trial court erred in dismissing her complaint for writ of certiorari. Defendants filed a combined motion to dismiss under section 2-619.1 of thе Code (
¶ 14 When the 1970 Illinois Constitution (
¶ 15 In determining whether the Court of Claims proceeding violated plaintiff‘s right to due process, we find Klopfer instructive. In Klopfer, the plaintiff filed a complaint in the Court of Claims on January 16, 1981, seeking payment for abortions he performed on public aid recipients from June 1978 to February 1979. Klopfer, 286 Ill. App. 3d at 501. An evidentiary hearing was held, and the parties submitted briefs in support of their respective positions. The Court of Claims denied the plaintiff‘s claim, finding, in part, that his claim was untimely as it was filed after the one-year limit provided for in the Act. Id. The plaintiff filed a petition for rehearing in which he argued that the Illinois Department of Public Aid waived the statutory limitations period because it failed to raise the issue as an affirmative defense or by written motion, and that he had been denied a fair opportunity to address the issue. Id. at 501-02. The Court of Claims denied the petition, holding that the limitations issue was sufficiently raised during the proceedings and that timeliness was a jurisdictional issue such that the Court of Claims could dismiss an untimely claim on its own motion. Id. at 502.
¶ 16 The plaintiff filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the circuit court against the Court of Claims, and the Court of Claims moved to dismiss the petition. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss. In determining whether dismissal was proper, the appellate court noted that “decisions of the Court of Claims are generally not subject to judicial review” except “where the Court of Claims acts in a manner that deprives a party of the constitutional right to due process.” Id. The court thus considered only issues that addressed the due process given plaintiff befоre the Court of Claims, and “the propriety of the trial court having disposed of this action” under section 2-619. Id. at 503.
¶ 17 Noting that the plaintiff must show he filed his claim within the one-year limitation period provided in the Act, the court found that “[n]othing in the record of the proceedings before the Court of Claims or in the factual allegations contained in plaintiff‘s petition for a writ of certiorari even remotely suggests” thе plaintiff was denied “an opportunity to introduce evidence in an effort to meet that burden.” Id. at 506. It also found “no exception to the requirement that the jurisdictional time limitations in the Act must be met before the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court of Claims attaches.” Id. at 507. Therefore, since the plaintiff did not file his claim within the one-year statute of limitations period and there was no deprivation of his due process rights by the Court of Claims, the trial court properly dismissed the plaintiff‘s petition for writ of certiorari. Id. at 508. See also Reyes, 299 Ill. App. 3d at 1104-06 (plaintiff was not deprived of his due process rights when the Court of Claims dismissed his claim as untimely, where it considered plaintiff‘s objections to the motion to dismiss based on the timeliness issue, as well as plaintiff‘s motion for rehearing and reconsideration, giving plaintiff “several opportunities to be heard“).
¶ 19 Plaintiff, however, argues that due process requires she have a chance to be heard on the merits of her claim before the Court of Claims. As support, she cites Rossetti. In Rossetti, a general contractor entered into a contract with the Illinois Deрartment of Transportation and hired a subcontractor to work on various projects pursuant to the contract. Rossetti, 109 Ill. 2d at 74. After a dispute, the general contractor filed a claim with the Court of Claims seeking money due under the contract, including payments owed to the subcontractor. The Department of Transportation raised an affirmative defense, arguing that the general contractor engaged in fraud against the State. Id. at 74-75. The subcontractor sought to intervene in the action to argue that it had not engaged in fraud and should be paid. The Court of Claims, providing no reason, denied the subcontractor‘s request to intervene and granted summary judgment in favor of the Department of Transportation. The general contractor‘s claim was then dismissed in its entirety. Id. at 75.
¶ 20 The subcontractor filed a complaint for writ of certiorari in the circuit court. Although the court acknowledged that a manifest injustice had been done to the subcontractor and that it should have a right to appear in a forum and present its claim for payment, the court determined it had no jurisdiction over the matter and dismissed the complaint. Id. at 76. The subcontractor filed an appeal which this court dismissed. The supreme court allowed a petition for leave to appeal. Id. at 76-77.
¶ 21 Recognizing that the Court of Claims Act provides no method of judicial review of Court of Claims’ decisions, the supreme court characterized the “primary issue” before it as whether filing a writ of certiorari was a proper method for the subcontractor to obtain judicial review. Id. at 77. Following its decision in People ex rel. Harrod v. Illinois Courts Comm‘n, 69 Ill. 2d 445, 458 (1977), in which the supreme court determined that the Illinois Courts Commissiоn was not a coequal court within the meaning of the constitution, it found that the Court of Claims also “is not a court within the meaning of the judicial article but instead is a fact-finding body.” Rossetti, 109 Ill. 2d at 78. Reasoning that “it is the function and
¶ 22 Plaintiff contends that she, like the subcontractor in Rossetti, had no opportunity to be heard before the Court of Claims, and therefore she also was deprived of her due process rights. We disagree. First, Rossetti did not involve a statute of limitations issue as we have here. Before reaching the merits of plaintiff‘s claim, the Court of Claims must have jurisdiction to hear her claim. There is “no exception to the requirement that the jurisdictional time limitations in the Act must be met before the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court of Claims attaches.” Klopfer, 286 Ill. App. 3d at 507. Also, unlike the subcontractor in Rossetti, who never had the opportunity to intervene or present any argument, plaintiff here had multiple oрportunities to be heard on the limitations issue, which satisfies due process concerns under these circumstances. See id. at 508; Reyes, 299 Ill. App. 3d at 1104-05.
¶ 23 We note that there is a distinction between Klopfer and Reyes, and the case before us, where the parties in those cases did not dispute the applicable limitations period while the parties here disagree on whether the two or five-year limitations period applies. Plaintiff argues that her claim stems from a contractual right created by section 2(a) of the Indemnification Act, making the five-year limitations period applicable to her. The Court of Claims, however, looked at the language of the Indemnification Act and determined that no contract right was created; thus, the five-year limitations did not apply to plaintiff. Although certiorari may not be used to review the correctness of a Court of Claims’ dеcision based on the merits, a court may review that decision for due process violations where the Court of Claims’ actions exceed its constitutional authority to so act. Rossetti, 109 Ill. 2d at 78-80. Thus, in cases where the Court of Claims applies “its own independent judicial interpretation” and construction to statutory ambiguities, and its interpretation has no basis in law or citations to authority, the Court of Claims could be viewed as acting beyond its constitutional grant of authority. Harrod, 69 Ill. 2d at 472; Rossetti, 109 Ill. 2d at 78.
¶ 24 Here, in determining that the five-year limitations period for claims arising from a contract did not apply, the Court of Claims relied on clear and settled law that statutes are presumed not to create contractual rights unless the legislature expresses a clear and explicit intent to do so. Its order after rehearing cited to Dopkeen v. Whitaker, 399 Ill. App. 3d 682, 685 (2010), for this
¶ 25 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
¶ 26 Affirmed.