FRANK A. MITCHELL, Appellee, v. FIAT-ALLIS, INC., Appellant.
No. 74463
Supreme Court of Illinois
February 3, 1994
158 Ill. 2d 143
In the present case, the appellate court held that the Act impliedly preempted plaintiff‘s ordinances. We disagree. In order to preempt home rule power, the General Assembly must act as provided in section 6.
CONCLUSION
We find that plaintiff had authority to enact the municipal ordinances in question. We further find that the ordinances are not specifically or impliedly preempted by the Public Utilities Act. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court and the appellate court, and remand this cause to the circuit court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Appellate court reversed;
circuit court reversed;
cause remanded.
Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen (Karen L. Kendall and Bradley S. McMillan, of Peoria, and Gary L. Borah,
Katz, Friedman, Schur & Eagle, of Chicago (Harold A. Katz and David C. Zimmerman, of counsel), for appellee.
Anthony G. Karamuzis, of J. Richard Hisaw & Associates, Ltd., of Chicago, for amicus curiae Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
JUSTICE MCMORROW delivered the opinion of the court:
We are asked to determine whether the appellate court erred in taking jurisdiction over this workers’ compensation appeal, where the claimant‘s attorney did not file a notice of appeal in conformance with
Frank Mitchell, claimant and appellee, fell from a ladder and injured his right knee while he was working at the Fiat-Allis plant on March 2, 1985. He filed a petition with the Industrial Commission (Commission). After a hearing, the arbitrator entered a memorandum of decision in which she dismissed Mitchell‘s claim as not being proven. The Commission reversed this decision and awarded Mitchell compensation for his disability, medical expenses, and statutory penalties, interest, and attorney fees. Fiat-Allis filed a timely complaint for administrative review in the circuit court of Sangamon County.
The trial court heard argument on January 10, 1991,
An affidavit of Mitchell‘s attorney discloses the following. On April 25, 1991, Mitchell‘s attorney was in Springfield on a matter unrelated to the instant case. He telephoned opposing counsel and the trial judge‘s court reporter, to inquire whether the judge would like the attorneys to appear for further argument on the Mitchell case. Upon arriving at the office of the clerk of the court, Mitchell‘s attorney checked the court file. Although the court docket sheet contained an entry which indicated that the trial court entered its order on March 1, 1991, Mitchell‘s attorney did not find the order disposing of his client‘s workers’ compensation claim. He also asked an employee of the clerk‘s office to search for any unfiled papers, but nothing was found. Mitchell‘s counsel then spoke to the judge‘s court reporter, who said she believed that the judge had entered an order in the case. The court reporter began to search her own file. At this point, the trial judge appeared and, upon learning that Mitchell‘s counsel was unaware of her disposition of the case, set up a telephone conference call with opposing counsel. While the call was in progress, the court reporter handed Mitchell‘s attorney a copy of an unstamped order bearing the handwritten date of February 27, 1991.
As a result of the conference with the judge, Mitchell‘s attorney prepared and filed a section 2—1401 petition, seeking the court‘s withdrawal or vacation of the
On April 29, 1991, the judge granted the petition of Mitchell‘s counsel, withdrew the order of judgment dated February 27, and reentered the same order, effective April 29, 1991. Subsequently, Mitchell‘s counsel filed a timely notice of appeal from the April 29 order.
Mitchell‘s appeal challenged the circuit court‘s reversal of the Commission‘s award of compensation. Fiat-Allis cross-appealed, arguing that the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to decide the matter. Three members of the Industrial Commission Division of the appellate court held in favor of upholding jurisdiction, and two members dissented, on the basis that the court lacked jurisdiction. Reaching the merits, the appellate court held that the trial court erred in reversing the Commission. (232 Ill. App. 3d 943.) Thereafter, Fiat-Allis filed its petition for leave to appeal in this court, which we granted (
ANALYSIS
Fiat-Allis urges this court to reverse the appellate court‘s ruling on the issue of jurisdiction, arguing that the court‘s opinion flouts the supreme court rules governing appellate jurisdiction.
Fiat-Allis primarily relies on this court‘s opinion in Granite City Lodge No. 272, Loyal Order of the Moose v. City of Granite City (1990), 141 Ill. 2d 122. In Granite City, the defendant city attempted to file a notice of appeal approximately four months after the trial court had disposed of the city‘s post-trial motion. The city argued that it had not received actual notice of the court‘s disposition of the post-trial motion. The issue was framed as follows: “whether the time for filing a notice of appeal is tolled until the parties receive actual notice of an order disposing of a post-trial motion.” (Granite City, 141 Ill. 2d at 123.) This court held that “actual notice is not required, so long as the order appealed from was expressed publicly, in words and at the situs of the proceeding.” (Id. at 123.) Accordingly, the court in Granite City affirmed the appellate court‘s rejection of the city‘s attempted appeal, holding that the city failed to come within the provisions of either
We find Granite City applicable to the instant cause and hold that the appellate court improvidently took jurisdiction over Mitchell‘s appeal from the circuit court‘s setting aside of the Industrial Commission‘s award. When Mitchell‘s counsel learned of the entry of the circuit court‘s final order disposing of the case, the initial 30-day period of
The issue of jurisdiction that Fiat-Allis presented to the appellate court questioned the authority of the trial court to grant Mitchell‘s section 2—1401 petition to extend the time for filing an appeal beyond the 30-day period conferred by
Notwithstanding its holding that section 2—1401 of the Code of Civil Procedure could not be employed as a means to salvage Mitchell‘s right to appeal, a majority of the appellate panel ruled that appellate jurisdiction would be upheld on grounds of equity. The appellate court expressed concern over the unfairness of penalizing the litigant because his attorney relied on the circuit court‘s incorrect directive. We are not insensitive to the concern expressed by the appellate court in the instant case. However, this court has general supervisory authority to oversee the administration of its own rules in the statewide system of courts. The circuit court‘s attempt in the instant case to assist Mitchell‘s counsel is understandable and well-intentioned, but neither the trial court nor the appellate court has the “authority to excuse compliance with the filing requirements of the supreme court rules governing appeals.” (In re Smith (1980), 80 Ill. App. 3d 380, 382, citing Huber v. Maggio (1975), 31 Ill. App. 3d 624, 625; see also Meyer v. Blue Cab Co. (1984), 129 Ill. App. 3d 440 (trial court‘s entry of final judgment triggered 30-day period for filing notice of appeal notwithstanding the trial court‘s order staying enforcement or appeal from the order for 60 days).) Attorneys are not excused from following the filing requirements of
Mitchell also contends that we should analogize this case to those in which the courts have applied equitable principles to correct the mistake of ministerial officers (see, e.g., Cesena v. Du Page County (1991), 145 Ill. 2d 32, 38; In re Application of Rosewell (1986), 148 Ill. App. 3d 297) or to excuse a litigant‘s mistaken reliance on a judge‘s erroneous direction (see Needham v. White Laboratories, Inc. (7th Cir. 1981), 639 F.2d 394 (holding that appealing party should not be penalized by loss of appeal for relying on trial court‘s erroneous assurance that the filing of a post-trial motion tolled the time for filing an appeal until the motion was decided)). We do not believe, however, that the case at bar is analogous to the cases which employ equitable principles to correct ministerial mistakes. The “mistake” in the instant case was the belief of the circuit court and Mitchell‘s counsel that a motion to vacate the judgment order, more than 30 days after its entry, was a valid means by which the circuit court could reenter the same order and thereby start a new 30-day period in which to file notice of appeal. That Mitchell‘s counsel apparently did not receive actual notice of the March 1 order, even if caused by clerical oversight, does not excuse counsel‘s failure to monitor his case closely enough to become aware that the circuit court had ruled. We conclude that, despite what might appear to be a harsh result under the facts of this case, the appellate court lacked jurisdiction over the appeal and should have dismissed it. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of the appellate court and dismiss the appeal.
Appellate court judgment vacated;
appeal dismissed.
I agree that litigants must strictly adhere to the time limits we have established in
The flaw in the majority‘s position is that it is premised on the belief that the circuit court‘s order became a final and appealable judgment as of March 1, 1991. This is not so. As the majority itself recognizes, a judge‘s decision in a case must be expressed publicly, in words, and at the situs of the proceedings before it will be considered a rendition of a judgment. An order is deemed to have become public at the situs of the proceedings when it is filed with the clerk of the court. (Granite City Lodge No. 272, Loyal Order of the Moose v. City of Granite City (1990), 141 Ill. 2d 122, 123.) In the case before us, a copy of the court‘s judgment was ultimately produced which bore a clerk‘s file stamp dated March 1, 1991. The record further shows that the clerk‘s docket sheet contained an entry, also dated March 1, which stated, “ORDER ON REVIEW SIGNED BY JUDGE MYERSCOUGH.” The problem is that Judge Myerscough‘s order had not, in fact, been placed in the court‘s file on March 1. Indeed, it was still not in the file nearly two months later, when Mitchell‘s attorney came to check on April 25, nor could it be located by the clerk‘s staff among the unfiled papers in the clerk‘s office. Somewhere between the file stamp and the file cabinet it had simply vanished.
The order in question here may not have met so extreme a fate. Even so, the fact remains that from the time the order was first signed on February 27, until sometime after April 25, it was not part of the court file. Although a copy of the order did turn up on the 25th, there is no evidence that this particular copy had ever passed through the clerk‘s hands. It bore no file stamp and was located by the court reporter among her personal notes, not in any official court records.
Because the order was not actually placed in the file and could not even be located in the clerk‘s office, it was not available for inspection by the parties, their attorneys or anyone else. Under these circumstances, the order was in no sense public. Lacking public expression, it could not operate as a final and appealable judgment. To hold otherwise, as the majority does here, is tantamount to finding that a party‘s legitimate right to appeal can be defeated through the ineptitude of some unknown deputy clerk. Such a result is wholly inconsistent with the orderly system of review we have striven to create through our rules of court.
The majority suggests that the problems here could have been avoided if only Mitchell‘s counsel had monitored the case more closely. Blaming counsel was an expedient the court employed in Granite City Lodge No. 272, Loyal Order of the Moose v. City of Granite City (1990), 141 Ill. 2d 122, but it will not work under the
I note, moreover, that while some 3 1/2 months passed between the last hearing on the merits of the case, which was January 10, and counsel‘s personal investigation at the courthouse on April 25, there is nothing in the record which suggests that he should have been on notice that the trial court might issue its ruling sooner. Experienced litigators may hope that justice will be swift, but they know it often is not. Given the demands of the adversarial process and the burdens on our trial courts, delays have become a common, if lamentable, feature of contemporary litigation. The circuit court of Sangamon County has not escaped this trend. During 1991, 78% of the cases on the county‘s miscellaneous remedy docket, as this one was, were pending more than 12 months. (Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, 1991 Annual Report to the Supreme Court of Illinois 104.) By contrast, only 7 1/2 months had passed here between the time this case was first filed and the time counsel decided to check the file on April
As soon as Mitchell‘s counsel discovered something was amiss, both he and Judge Myerscough acted with the utmost diligence in attempting to remedy the situation. After giving all parties an opportunity to be heard, Judge Myerscough had the signed order properly filed on April 29. It was then and only then that the order constituted a final and appealable judgment so as to trigger the time limit specified by