Pack v. Santa Fe Park Enterprises, Inc.

568 N.E.2d 360, 209 Ill. App. 3d 648, 154 Ill. Dec. 360, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 160
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 7, 1991
Docket1-89-0737
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 568 N.E.2d 360 (Pack v. Santa Fe Park Enterprises, Inc.) 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
Pack v. Santa Fe Park Enterprises, Inc., 568 N.E.2d 360, 209 Ill. App. 3d 648, 154 Ill. Dec. 360, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 160 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE McMORROW

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff Charlene Pack filed suit against the owners of the Santa Fe Raceway (hereinafter collectively referred to as defendants) for injuries she allegedly sustained on the defendants’ premises. Defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiff’s suit was barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110, par. 13 — 202.) Plaintiff responded that defendants should be equitably estopped from asserting the statute of limitations defense, because plaintiff had detrimentally relied on the date of injury stated in correspondence from defendants’ insurer to plaintiff’s attorneys. If the incorrect date of injury as stated in the correspondence of defendants’ insurer were adopted, plaintiff’s suit was timely filed. The record establishes, as a matter of law, that defendants are not equitably estopped from raising the statute of limitations as a bar to plaintiff’s suit. Accordingly, we affirm.

The following facts, as revealed in the record, are undisputed for the purpose of defendants’ summary judgment motion. Plaintiff was injured on September 14, 1985, while she was a spectator at an automobile race on defendants’ premises. Plaintiff sustained substantial damage to her face when she was hit by a rock that was thrown loose from the track during a car race.

Plaintiff initially retained Jeffrey M. Goldberg (Goldberg) to represent her in her claim against defendants. Plaintiff submitted all pertinent documents to Goldberg with respect to the injuries she had sustained on defendants’ premises. Goldberg forwarded an attorney lien dated September 20, 1985, to defendants’ insurer, Crawford Risk Management Services (Crawford). In this lien, Goldberg stated that plaintiff was injured on defendants’ premises on September 14, 1985. At some point thereafter, plaintiff forgot, and could no longer remember, the precise date of her injury.

The record indicates that a racing accident report, executed by agents or employees of defendants, stated that the date of plaintiff’s accident was September 14, 1985. In addition, the report of the ambulance service that transported plaintiff from defendants’ premises to a local hospital after she was injured indicated that the ambulance service was provided on September 14, 1985. The record does not reveal whether these documents were obtained by Goldberg during his representation of plaintiff. However, defendants do not dispute that these documents were in Crawford’s possession prior to plaintiff’s institution of her suit against defendants.

Goldberg terminated his representation of plaintiff in the summer of 1987, and plaintiff retained Allan J. Marco (Marco) to act on her behalf in June 1987. In the few months in which Marco represented plaintiff before suit was filed, Marco corresponded with Goldberg and Crawford to obtain the pertinent documents held in the possession of these parties. In response to Marco’s request, Goldberg sent Marco four letters which Goldberg had received from Crawford. Each of these letters included a caption indicating that plaintiff’s date of injury was September 19, 1985. Marco also sent a notice of attorney lien to Crawford stating that plaintiff had been injured on September 19, 1985. At Crawford’s direction, Marco obtained a release of attorney lien from Goldberg and forwarded it to Crawford. Marco also hired a private investigator in order to ascertain the proper names in which defendants should be specified in a complaint against them.

According to the record, all correspondence Marco received from Goldberg or Crawford included a caption indicating that plaintiff’s date of injury was September 19, 1985. In addition, none of the documents received by Marco indicated that plaintiff’s injuries occurred on a date other than September 19, 1985. As it appears in the record, neither Goldberg nor Crawford provided Marco with a copy of Goldberg’s original attorney lien, the defendants’ racing accident report, or the report of the ambulance service, all of which accurately stated plaintiff’s date of injury as September 14, 1985. The record does not disclose whether Marco specifically requested these documents from Goldberg, Crawford, or any other person or entity. Because all correspondence and documents in his possession appeared to consistently state the date of plaintiff’s injuries as September 19, 1985, Marco drafted a complaint in early September 1987 that alleged plaintiff had been injured on that date. Plaintiff’s complaint was filed on September 15,1987.

Defendants answered the complaint and filed the affirmative defense that plaintiff’s suit was barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations, since her injuries occurred on September 14, 1985, and suit was not filed until two years and a day thereafter, on September 15, 1987. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110, par. 13 — 202.) Thereafter, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment based upon this affirmative defense. Following briefing and argument, the trial court allowed defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The trial court determined that plaintiff had unreasonably relied on the correspondence from Crawford in order to ascertain the precise date of plaintiff’s injuries. Plaintiff’s timely appeal followed.

On appeal, plaintiff argues that the record presents a triable issue of fact with respect to whether defendants should be equitably estopped from raising the defense that her suit was barred by the two-year statute of limitations. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110, par. 13— 202.) Plaintiff emphasizes that defendants’ insurer repeatedly misstated, in its correspondence to Goldberg and Marco, that plaintiff’s date of injury was September 19, 1985. Plaintiff also observes that the defendants’ insurer received correspondence from Goldberg and Marco, but never corrected these attorneys’ misapprehension that plaintiff had been injured on September 19, 1985. Plaintiff contends that defendants should not be permitted to benefit from their failure to accurately state the date of plaintiff’s injury in its correspondence to plaintiff’s attorneys, especially since her complaint was filed only one day after the statute of limitations had expired.

A defendant is equitably estopped from raising a statute of limitations defense when the defendant undertook affirmative acts that lulled the plaintiff into a false sense of security that the limitations defense would not be raised. Equitable estoppel is generally a question of fact, and the question is properly decided as a matter of law only when the facts are undisputed and reasonable persons could not differ as to the inferences to be drawn from the facts presented. See, e.g., Pantle v. Industrial Comm’n (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 365, 335 N.E.2d 491.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
568 N.E.2d 360, 209 Ill. App. 3d 648, 154 Ill. Dec. 360, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pack-v-santa-fe-park-enterprises-inc-illappct-1991.