Statute of Limitations and Installment Contracts: What is the Date of Breach and When Does the Limitations Period Start to Run – An IL Case Note

The statute of limitations defense and the equitable doctrine of laches are firmly-entrenched legal devices aimed at fostering finality in litigation.  The limitations and laches defenses both look to the length of time a plaintiff took to file suit and strive to balance a plaintiff’s right to have his claim heard on the merits with a defendant’s competing right to timely defend …

Fire Alarm Contract Doesn’t Create Implied Warranty Claim – IL ND

Two titans of their respective industries went head-to-head in Allstate Indemnity Company v. ADT, LLC, 2015 WL 3798715 (N.D.Ill. 2015), a dispute over an alarm company’s responsibility for fire damage to its homeowner customer. After a 2013 house fire decimated its insured’s home to the tune of about $1.4M in damages, the plaintiff home insurer (Allstate) sued ADT, the home smoke and …

Talent Agency’s Implied In Law Contract Claim Survives Dismissal In Suit For TV Commercial Services

Karen Stavins Enteprises, Inc. v. Community College District No. 508, 2015 IŁ App (1st) 150356 stands as a recent example of a plaintiff suing in quasi-contract – specifically, under an implied-in-law contract theory – to recover the reasonable value of unpaid acting services rendered in connection with a television commercial. The plaintiff, a well-known Chicago talent agency, sued the City Colleges of Chicago’s corporate parent (“City …