Condo Association Sues Developer Based on False Statements In Sales Brochure and For Anemic Repair Reserves

In Henderson Square Condominium Association v. LAB Townhomes, LLC, 2014 IL App (1st) 130764, a condominium association sued the developer and contractor after unit owners discovered wide-ranging property defects in their units. (For Chicago readers: the project is near that nightmarish, multi-cornered Belmont-Lincoln-Ashland intersection on the North side).

The property’s construction was completed in 1996, the unit owners discovered the property defects in 2007-2008 and filed suit in 2011 – nearly 15 years after construction was finished and about 4 years after discovery of the defects.  The extent of the unit damage wasn’t revealed until a consultant hired by the association opened up the unit walls and ceilings. 

The association sued for breach of implied warranty of habitability, fraud, negligence, for violating the Chicago Municipal Code section (Section 13-72-030) governing real estate marketing misrepresentations.  The trial court dismissed all the claims as time-barred.  The association appealed.

Result: Trial court reversed.  Association’s claims reinstated

Rules/reasoning:

The basis for the reversal was the defendants’ possible fraudulent concealment of the association’s causes of action.  Code Section 13-214(a)and (b) provide a four-year limitations and 10-year repose period for construction-related claims, respectively.  The construction repose period can have harsh results: it means that no matter when a plaintiff discovers an injury, if more than 10 years have elapsed since construction was complete, the plaintiff’s claim is barred.

But Code section 13-214(e) provides that the repose period doesn’t apply where a defendant makes fraudulent misrepresentations or fraudulently conceals a plaintiff’s claim.  735 ILCS 5/13-214(e); ¶ 28.  When fraud is involved, the five-year limitations period set forth in Code Section 13-205 (735 ILCS 5/13-205) applies.  To demonstrate fraudulent concealment, a plaintiff must show silence coupled with deceptive conduct or the suppression of material facts.  ¶¶ 95-96. 

The Court found a question of fact as to whether there was active concealment based on (1) defendants’ marketing documents: a sales brochure that made specific statements concerning unit insulation; and (2) the anemic repair reserves earmarked by the developer for repairs.  The Court held that if the defendants didn’t inform the plaintiff that the units lacked insulation – as the plaintiff’s consultant found and noted in its report – and if the reserve levels weren’t large enough to meet anticipated future repairs, this could show fraudulent concealment sufficient to beat the repose period argument.  (¶¶ 98- 102).

The Court also sustained the association’s claims that were premised on Municipal Code.  Sections 13-72-030 and 13-72-100 of the Code provide a real estate buyer both with a private cause of action and damages remedy (including attorneys’ fees) where a seller makes misrepresentations in the course of marketing the sale of real estate; including condominiums.  The First District found that the association stated a cause of action under the Ordinance and rejected the defendants’ argument that the Ordinance claims were duplicative of the association’s fraud claims.  The Court found the Ordinance gave rise to a private right of action and provided an additional remedy to a common law fraud claim.  (¶¶112-113).

Validating the plaintiff’s breach of fiduciary duty claim, the Court looked to the Illinois Condominium Act (“Act”). Section 9.2 of the Act imposes a duty on a developer to adequately fund a reserve account for future improvements and repairs.  765 ILCS  605/9(c)(1), (2).  A “reasonable reserve” amount is a fact-based inquiry determined by (1) repair and replacement costs, and the (2) estimated remaining useful life of the property’s various structural, mechanical and energy components and its common elements.  (¶¶ 122-123, 129). 

The Court held that the question of whether the developer adequately funded the repairs reserve account wasn’t properly decided on a Section 2-615 motion.  And since the association properly pled that the developer breached fiduciary duties by failing to disclose known, latent defects in the property, the association stated a valid claim for breach of fiduciary duty (or at least one that survives a motion to dismiss).

Take-aways:

The Court found that a breach of fiduciary duty claim against a developer can survive almost 15 years after the developer’s last involvement with the property (the property was completed in 1996 and suit wasn’t filed until 2011).  The case also underscores the importance of adequately funding reserve accounts and demonstrates that claims premised on the City Ordinance sections governing false statements in real estate sales literature can be brought independently of common law fraud claims.  Henderson Square also illustrates the evidentiary showing a plaintiff must make to trigger the fraudulent concealment exception to the 10-year repose period applicable to construction claims.

Commercial Frustration and the Impossibility Defense: The Case of the Missing Bentley

Illinois agency rules, consumer fraud law and the commercial frustration doctrine are the focal points of Tahir v. DMI, 2014 WL 985351 (N.D. Ill. 2014), a case involving the purchase of an undelivered Bentley.

The plaintiff sued multiple car dealer defendants for breach of contract and consumer fraud after he paid over $100,000 for a car he never received.  The companies and individuals involved in the sale of the car operated a complex web of interconnected business entities that made it difficult to properly identify the selling defendants. 

The defendants all moved for summary judgment.

Result: Judgment for plaintiff on breach of contract claim against the dealership; Judgment for management company on plaintiff’s consumer fraud count.  

Basis/Reasoning:

The Court found for the plaintiff on its breach of contract claim versus the dealership based on Illinois agency principles governing liability to third parties. 

The test for agency is whether the principal can control the manner and method of the agent’s work such that the agent can affect the principal’s legal relationship.  (*5). 

Where a principal’s identity is disclosed to a third party, the disclosed principal is liable to the third party for a breach of contract while the agent is not.

Where an agent enters into a contract for an undisclosed principal, the agent is personally liable on the contract. 

Where a plaintiff gets a money judgment against an agent and an undisclosed principal, the plaintiff must choose which party to take the judgment against. (*5-6).

Here, both undisclosed and disclosed principal rules applied.  The dealership was managed by another entity under a written management agreement.  That agreement was cryptic concerning each parties’ duties in relation to the other. 

Based on the agreement’s wording, it was equally plausible that the car dealer controlled the manager and vice versa.

Because of this uncertainty, the Court found the dealer was liable under the car purchase contract as either a disclosed principal of the manager or as an agent for an undisclosed principal – also the manager.  Either way, plaintiff stated a breach of contract claim against the dealer. (*5).

The Court rejected the dealer defendant’s impossibility and commercial frustration defenses that blamed another dealer for not delivering the car. 

The impossibility defense applies where the (1) the impossibility was not and could not have been anticipated by the contracting parties, (2) the party claiming impossibility didn’t contribute to it, and (3) exhausted all possible alternatives to permit performance. 

Commercial frustration applies where (1) the frustrating  event wasn’t foreseeable and (2) the value of performance has been practically destroyed by the frustrating event.  (*6).  

Rejecting the defenses, the Court found that the manager’s default under the management agreement was clearly foreseeable as the agreement specified respective default and remedy provisions. 

The dealership also failed to show it exhausted all attempts at performance, such as by buying the car itself. The dealership offered no evidence that it lacked the resources to buy and deliver the car to the plaintiff. (*6).

The Court ruled against plaintiff on its consumer fraud claim against the manager.  An Illinois consumer fraud plaintiff must show (1) a deceptive act or practice, (2) defendant’s intent that the plaintiff rely on the deception, and (3) occurrence of the deception in trade or commerce.  (*8). 

The Court found that the plaintiff failed to demonstrate a deceptive act by the manager such as its intent to take plaintiff’s money without delivering the car.  At most, the Court ruled, the plaintiff alleged a breach of contract claim; not consumer fraud.  (*8).

Take-aways:

Many businesses operate through a byzantine web of corporate parents, subsidiaries, holding companies, trade names and “d/b/a”s (doing business as).  The plaintiff wisely named all possible entity permutations as defendants and let them sort out the responsible parties through motion practice.

The case also shows how difficult it is to prevail on an impossibility or commercial frustration defense – especially where the parties are sophisticated commercial entities.

Computer-Generated Business Records and Summary Judgment Affidavits – IL Law

bizrecordsIn US National Bank v. Avdic, 2014 IL App (1st) 121759-U, the First District provides a detailed analysis of both the evidentiary foundation requirements for computer-generated business records and the requirements of a valid summary judgment affidavit.

The plaintiff lender filed a foreclosure suit against the borrower defendant and moved for summary judgment.  The lender supported its motion with the affidavit of a bank officer who attached sworn copies of key loan documents, the promissory note and a computer-generated payment history for the defendant borrower’s account.

The defendant moved to strike the bank’s affidavit on the basis that it failed to lay a sufficient foundation for the attached loan and payment records and didn’t establish that the bank employee who signed the affidavit had first-hand knowledge of the defendant’s payment history.  The trial court entered summary judgment for the lender and denied the borrower’s motion to strike the affidavit.  The borrower appealed.

Result: Trial court affirmed. Plaintiff-lender wins.

Q: How Come?

A: The lender’s summary judgment affidavit complied with Illinois Supreme Court Rule 191 – the rule that governs summary judgment affidavits.  Rule 191 requires affidavit to state specific facts and to be based on personal knowledge instead of conclusions or guess-work.  Affidavits are substitutes for live trial testimony and because of that, must pass a stringent test for admission in evidence.  US Bank, ¶¶ 22-25.

To lay a foundation for admitting business records as a hearsay exception, the party must show that the records were (1) made in the regular course of business; and (2) at or near the time of the event or occurrence.  Rule 803(6) and Supreme Court Rule 236 work in tandem to codify the business records exception to the hearsay rule.  US Bank, ¶¶ 24-26.

Where computer-generated records are involved, the proponent must demonstrate (1) that the computer equipment is standard equipment, (2) the computerized entries were made in the regular course of business (3) at or reasonably near in time to the events recorded and (4) that the sources of information, the method of data entry and preparation are all trustworthy.  US Bank, ¶26.

The Court found that the lender’s affidavit met the relevant Rule 191 criteria.  The bank officer testified that she was familiar with the lender’s business practices, records and its manner of inputting, tracking and generating payment information.  She also testified in detail what steps the bank takes when creating, storing and printing loan and payment records.  The officer also said she reviewed the loan file, promissory note and related documents.  She also attached the key loan documents to the affidavit. ¶¶ 30-31.

The affidavit also met the admissibility standards for computer-generated payment records.  The bank officer described the computer software used by the bank to create and print out loan payment histories and testified that the software program used was standard and customary in the banking industry.  The officer even said that the computer equipment was periodically checked for accuracy. ¶¶ 29-30.

The court also found there was no requirement that the officer have first-hand knowledge of the borrower’s account or that she (the officer) personally made the payment entries into the bank’s computer for the affidavit to conform to Rule 191’s requirements.  Under Rule 236 and Illinois Evidence Rule 803(6), a lack of personal knowledge can affect the weight given to testimony; but it won’t bar that testimony outright.

Take-aways:  To get computer business records into evidence on summary judgment, the mo any should itemize each foundational requirement for those records.  A business entity plaintiff especially should establish that the person signing a summary judgment affidavit is familiar with the business’s record-keeping and billing processes and can testify to any unique billing and payment software used by the business.