Northcutt v. Chapman

819 N.E.2d 1180, 353 Ill. App. 3d 970, 289 Ill. Dec. 380, 2004 WL 2810017
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 30, 2004
Docket4-04-0416
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 819 N.E.2d 1180 (Northcutt v. Chapman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northcutt v. Chapman, 819 N.E.2d 1180, 353 Ill. App. 3d 970, 289 Ill. Dec. 380, 2004 WL 2810017 (Ill. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

JUSTICE STEIGMANN

delivered the opinion of the court:

In this case, we consider whether a bank has a duty to refuse to lend money to a person when (1) the bank knows that the borrower intends to use the money to purchase a car and (2) the bank knows or should have known that the borrower (a) does not have a valid driver’s license and (b) has a record of numerous serious traffic law violations. We hold that a bank has no such duty.

I. BACKGROUND

In December 2003, plaintiff, Jerry Northcutt, filed a complaint against defendants, Wayne Chapman, Michael Brannan, Premier Bank of Jacksonville, and Pleasant Plains State Bank, a subsidiary of Illinois National Bank. (The record suggests that Premier Bank of Jacksonville was formerly known as Pleasant Plains Bank. We thus hereinafter refer to both defendant banks as simply, “the bank.”) Northcutt sought to recover for injuries he suffered when Chapman, who was driving his Ford Escort, failed to yield to oncoming traffic before turning left into a private driveway and struck Northcutt, who was riding a motorcycle.

According to Northcutt’s complaint, between 1996 and 1998, Chapman was cited and convicted on four traffic violations. In January 1999, his license was suspended for accruing 3 traffic violations in 12 months. In July 1999, Chapman received another traffic citation and was later convicted. In August 1999, he received another traffic citation and turned his license in as bail. In October 1999, Chapman was cited for failing to drive on the right side of the roadway after he caused an accident that resulted in the death of another driver. He was later convicted on that citation, and his license was suspended. In July 2001, Chapman was cited for driving on a suspended license, and in July 2002, he was convicted of that offense. In May 2002, Brannan sold Chapman the Ford Escort that Chapman was driving when he struck and injured Northcutt.

Northcutt further alleged that (1) Chapman negligently caused his injuries by failing to yield to keep a proper lookout (count I); (2) Bran-nan negligently entrusted the Ford Escort to Chapman (count II); and (3) the bank negligently entrusted the Ford Escort to Chapman when it loaned Chapman the funds to buy the car and it knew or should have known that Chapman (a) did not have a valid driver’s license and (b) was an incompetent driver. (Count III made this allegation against Pleasant Plains State Bank, and count IV made the same allegation against Premier Bank.)

In January and February 2004, the bank filed motions to dismiss counts III and IV of Northcutt’s complaint, pursuant to section 2 — 615 of the Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2 — 615 (West 2002)). The motions asserted that Northcutt failed to state a cause of action against the bank because the bank did not have a duty to determine Chapman’s driving competency before loaning him money to purchase the Ford Escort.

In March 2004, the trial court granted the bank’s motions to dismiss. In so doing, the court noted that for an entrustment to have occurred, the bank would have had to have a superior right to possess the entrusted article — namely, the Ford Escort. The court also found that it was “speculation that but for the loaning of money, [Chapman] would not have obtained a vehicle.”

Later in March 2004, the bank filed a motion seeking (1) an order dismissing counts III and IV with prejudice and (2) a Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (155 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)) finding that no just reason existed for delaying an appeal. At an April 2004 hearing, Northcutt did not object to the bank’s motion, and the trial court entered an order dismissing counts III and IV with prejudice and finding that no just reason existed for delaying appeal of its order.

This appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Section 2 — 615 Motions To Dismiss

A section 2 — 615 motion to dismiss a complaint challenges its legal sufficiency and questions whether its allegations, when viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, are sufficient to state a cause of action upon which relief can be granted. Vitro v. Mihelcic, 209 Ill. 2d 76, 81, 806 N.E.2d 632, 634 (2004). A section 2 — 615 motion admits all well-pleaded facts as true. However, conclusions of law or factual conclusions that are not supported by allegations of specific fact are not admitted. Provenzale v. Forister, 318 Ill. App. 3d 869, 878, 743 N.E.2d 676, 683 (2001). We review de novo the trial court’s ruling on a section 2 — 615 motion to dismiss. Vitro, 209 Ill. 2d at 81, 806 N.E.2d at 634.

B. Negligent Entrustment

Northcutt first argues that the trial court erred by granting the bank’s motion to dismiss counts III and IV of his complaint because the bank’s lending money to Chapman for the purpose of buying a car, knowing that Chapman was an unlicensed, reckless, and incompetent driver, constituted negligent entrustment under section 308 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (Restatement (Second) of Torts § 308 (1965)) (Restatement). We disagree.

Section 308 of the Restatement provides as follows:

“It is negligence to permit a third person to use a thing or to engage in an activity which is under the control of the actor, if the actor knows or should know that such person intends or is likely to use the thing or to conduct himself in the activity in such a manner as to create an unreasonable risk of harm to others.” Restatement (Second) of Torts § 308 (1965).

To prove negligent entrustment, the plaintiff must show that the defendant gave another express or implied permission to use or possess a dangerous article or instrumentality that the defendant knew, or should have known, would likely be used in a manner involving an unreasonable risk of harm. Evans v. Shannon, 201 Ill. 2d 424, 434, 776 N.E.2d 1184, 1190 (2002). The two primary considerations in a negligent-entrustment-of-a-vehicle analysis are as follows: (1) whether the owner of the vehicle entrusted it to an incompetent or unfit driver and (2) whether the incompetency was a proximate cause of the plaintiffs injury. Evans, 201 Ill. 2d at 434, 776 N.E.2d at 1190.

Although Northcutt acknowledges that a negligent-entrustment action requires that the actor have control over the dangerous article he entrusts to another, he does not contend that the bank had control over Chapman’s car. Instead, he contends that the dangerous article that the bank entrusted to Chapman was the money it loaned him for the purchase of the car. No Illinois precedent exists for concluding that money is a “thing” or “dangerous article” that can be negligently entrusted under section 308 of the Restatement. Moreover, nothing in the language of that section, or the comments thereto, supports such an interpretation.

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819 N.E.2d 1180, 353 Ill. App. 3d 970, 289 Ill. Dec. 380, 2004 WL 2810017, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northcutt-v-chapman-illappct-2004.