The (Ruthless?) Illinois Credit Agreements Act

The Illinois Credit Agreements Act, 815 ILCS 160/1, et seq. (the “ICAA”) and its requirement that credit agreements be in writing and signed by both creditor and debtor, recently doomed a borrower’s counterclaim in a multi-million dollar loan default case.

The plaintiff in Contractors Lien Services, Inc. v. The Kedzie Project, LLC, 2015 IL App (1st) 130617-U, sued to foreclose on a commercial real estate loan and sued various guarantors along with the corporate borrower.

The borrower counterclaimed, arguing that a “side letter agreement” (“SLA”) signed by an officer of the lender established the parties’ intent for the lender to release additional funds to the borrower – funds the borrower claims would have gotten it current or “in balance” under the loan. The trial court disagreed and entered a $14M-plus judgment for the lender plaintiff.  The corporate borrower and two guarantors appealed.

Held: Affirmed

Rules/Reasoning:

The ICAA provides that a debtor cannot maintain an action based on a “credit agreement” unless it’s (1) in writing, (2) expresses an agreement or commitment to lend money or extend credit or (2)(a) delay or forbear repayment of money and (3) is signed by the creditor and the debtor. 815 ILCS 160/2

An ICAA “credit agreement” expansively denotes “an agreement or commitment by a creditor to lend money or extend credit or delay or forbear repayment of money not primarily for personal, family or household purposes, and not in connection with the issuance of credit cards.”  So, the ICAA does not apply to consumer transactions.  It only governs business/commercial arrangements.

The ICAA covers and excludes claims that are premised on unwritten agreements that are even tangentially related to a credit agreement as defined by the ICAA.

The borrower argued that the court should construe the SLA with the underlying loan as a single transaction: an Illinois contract axiom provides that where two instruments are signed as part of the same transaction, they will be read and considered together as one instrument.

The court rejected this single transaction argument.  It found the SLA was separate and unrelated to the loan documents.  The SLA post-dated the loan documents as evidenced by the fact that the  SLA specifically referenced the loan.  Conversely, the loan made no mention of the SLA (since it didn’t exist when the loan documents were signed).

All these facts militated against the court finding the SLA was part-and-parcel of the underlying loan transaction.

Another key factor in the court’s analysis was the defendants admitting that the SLA post-dated the loan (and so was a separate and distinct writing).  The court viewed this as a judicial admission – defined under the law as “deliberate, clear, unequivocal statement by a party about a concrete fact within that party’s knowledge.”

Here, since the SLA was not part of the loan modification, it stood or fell on whether it met the requirements of the ICAA.  It did not since it wasn’t signed by both lender and borrower.  The ICAA dictates that both creditor and debtor sign a credit agreement.  Here, since the debtor didn’t sign the SLA (it was only signed by lender’s agent), the SLA agreement was unenforceable.  As a consequence, the lender’s summary judgment on the counterclaim was proper.

Afterwords:

This case and others like it show that a commercially sophisticated borrower – be it a business entity or an individual – will likely be shown no mercy by a court.  This is especially true where there is no fraud, duress or unequal bargaining power underlying a given loan transaction.

Contractor’s Lien Services also illustrates in stark relief that ICAA statutory signature requirement will be enforced to the letter.  Since the borrower didn’t sign the SLA (which would have arguably cured the subject default), the borrower couldn’t rely on it and the lender’s multi-million dollar judgment was validated on appeal.

Commercial Real Estate Broker’s Judgment Against Property Owner Upheld Where Owner Negotiated Deal Behind Broker’s Back

In AMA v. Kaplan Realty, Inc., 2015 IL App(1st) 143600, the court looked to the common dictionary definitions of “exclusive” and “refer” as they apply to an exclusive real estate listing agreement to find that a commercial real estate broker could recover unpaid commissions from a property owner who negotiated a property sale without the broker’s knowledge.

Here is the relevant chronology: the plaintiff property owner hired the defendant broker to sell a multi-unit apartment building.  The parties signed an exclusive listing agreement running from January 2009 – January 2010 that required the owner to refer all purchase inquiries to the broker and that provided for a 5% commission on the gross sale price from any buyer during the term of the agreement.

About two months before the agreement expired, the owner started dealing directly with a prospective buyer whom the broker had earlier introduced to the owner. The owner and buyer continued to discuss the details of the purchase through the end of the contractual listing period.  Ultimately, some 18 days after the agreement expired, the owner and buyer signed a $6.75M sales contract for the parcel.  After learning of the sale, the broker recorded a lien for 5% of the sale price.

The plaintiff filed a slander of title suit (arguing that the broker lien clouded property title) and the broker filed a breach of contract counterclaim for his 5% commission.

The trial court entered summary judgment for the broker for nearly $500K and the owner appealed.

Affirming, the First District rejected the owner’s argument that since the broker “knew about” the property’s eventual buyer, the owner complied with the listing contract.  The court noted that the contract required the owner to “immediately refer” any prospect who contacted the owner for any reason and there was no exception for prospects known to the broker.

Looking to the Merriam-Webster’s College Dictionary, 11th edition (“MWCD”) “refer” means “to send or direct for treatment, air or information, or decision.”  Under this definition, the owner was obligated to send anyone who contacted the owner about the property to the broker.  MWCD, p. 1045, 11th ed. 2006.

The court also noted that the listing agreement was an exclusive one.  “Exclusive” in the listing contract context denotes “limiting or limited to possession, control or use by a single individual or group.”  MWCD, p. 436 (11th ed. 2006).  Under this definition, the court found that the subject listing agreement gave the broker the sole right to market the property – even to the exclusion of the owner.

Affirming the money judgment for the broker, the court found that the owner’s sustained pattern of excluding the broker from communications with the buyer and failing to apprise the broker of the owner’s contacts with the buyer supported the trial court’s half-million dollar judgment for the broker.

Afterword:

This case represents a straightforward application of contract interpretation principles to merit what the court believes is a fair result for the broker.  The owner’s pattern of bypassing the broker to contact the buyer directly, coupled with the fact that the purchase contract was signed so soon after the listing agreement terminated was a suspicious factor weighing in favor of upholding the money judgment against the owner.

I’m left wondering why the broker didn’t file suit to foreclose his broker’s lien.  As I’ll write in a future post, the Illinois Commercial Real Estate Broker Lien Act, 770 ILCS 15/1 et seq. (“Broker Act”), arms a commercial broker who secures a buyer (or tenant) but isn’t paid with a strong remedy.  The successful Broker Act plaintiff can recover her attorneys’ fees against the owner or buyer, whatever the case may be. 770 ILCS 15/5, 10, 15.

 

Sole Shareholder Of Dissolved Corporation Can Sue Under Nine-Year Old Contract – Eludes Five-Year ‘Survival’ Rule

image

 

Haskins, d/b/a Windows Siding Unlimited, Inc. v. Hogan, 2015 IL App (3d) 140609-U – A Synopsis

In 2003, Plaintiff’s former company entered into a written contract with defendant to install windows on defendant’s home. Defendant failed to pay.

The windows company was administratively dissolved in 2005 by the Illinois Secretary of State.  Seven years later, in 2012, Plaintiff – the sole shareholder of the windows company – assigned the company’s claim against the defendant to himself and sued defendant for breach of contract.

The court granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment and found that the claim was untimely under Illinois’ five-year survival period for a dissolved corporation’s claims.  Plaintiff appealed.

Reversing the trial court, the appeals court first noted that a dissolved corporation’s assets belong to the former shareholders, subject to the rights of creditors.

Section 12.80 of the Business Corporation Act provides that an administrative dissolution of a company does not take away or effect any civil remedy belonging to the corporation, its directors, or shareholders, for any pre-dissolution claim or liability.

The lone limitation on this rule is that suit must be filed on the pre-dissolution claim within five years of the dissolution date. 805 ILCS 5/12.80.

This five-year “survival period” represents the outer limit for lawsuits by or against dissolved corporations.  The purpose of the five-year survival period is to allow the corporation to wrap up its affairs.  The court clarified that the five-year time span applies both to voluntary and involuntary dissolutions.

There are two exceptions to the five-year rule that allow a shareholder to file suit outside the five-year period.  They are: (1) where the shareholder is a direct beneficiary of the contract; and (2) where the shareholder seeks to recover a fixed, easily calculable sum.  (¶ 17).

To meet the first exception, the shareholder must show the parties manifested an intent to confer a benefit on the third party/shareholder. Here, this first exception didn’t apply since there was nothing in the contract suggesting an intent to benefit the plaintiff individually: the windows contract was clearly between a corporate entity (the windows company) and the defendant.

The second exception did apply, however.  The contract was for a fixed sum – $5,070.  As a result, the court found the 10-year limitations period for breach of written contracts applied (instead of the 5-year survival statute) and the plaintiff’s suit was timely (he sued in 2012 for a 2003 breach – within 10 years.) (¶¶ 17-20); 735 ILCS 5/13-206.

Comments: An interesting application of the five-year corporate survival rule to the small claims context.  It appears to be wrongly decided though.  The plaintiff clearly didn’t establish the first exception to the five-year rule: that he was a third-party beneficiary of the 2003 windows contract.  Since he failed to establish both exceptions, the five-year rule should have applied and time-barred the plaintiff’s claim.

Maybe it’s because the plaintiff was the sole shareholder of the defunct corporation that the court collapsed the two exceptions.  Regardless, it remains to be seen whether this decision is corrected or reversed later on.