Robert S. Pinzur, Ltd. v. the Hartford

511 N.E.2d 1281, 158 Ill. App. 3d 871, 110 Ill. Dec. 961, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2912
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 27, 1987
Docket2-86-0876
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 511 N.E.2d 1281 (Robert S. Pinzur, Ltd. v. the Hartford) 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
Robert S. Pinzur, Ltd. v. the Hartford, 511 N.E.2d 1281, 158 Ill. App. 3d 871, 110 Ill. Dec. 961, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2912 (Ill. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JUSTICE HOPF

delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal is taken by the Hartford, an insurance company, from a grant of summary judgment which awarded attorney fees to plaintiff professional corporation, Robert S. Pinzur, Ltd. Pinzur sought fees pursuant to an alleged statutory attorney’s lien on insurance proceeds due to his client. Hartford contends that the trial court erred in enforcing the alleged lien because Pinzur’s client had no claim to which a lien could attach and no determination was made that the insurer’s conduct was vexatious and unreasonable. Hartford also asserts that the trial court abused its discretion by awarding an excessive amount of attorney fees to Pinzur.

The record reveals the following facts. Hartford issued a group health and disability insurance policy to Buford Television, Inc., in October 1981. Debra Patka worked for Buford and was insured under the Hartford policy. In June 1982, Patka was hospitalized with a gall bladder problem and Crohn’s disease. At the time she was admitted to the hospital Patka signed an admission contract which included the following language:

“INSURANCE ASSIGNMENT:
I hereby authorize direct payment to Mease Hospital and Physicians of the proceeds payable under the terms of the policies submitted to Mease Hospital and Clinic in satisfaction of my bill.”

Around the middle of August Patka was discharged from the hospital.

When Hartford failed to pay the claims they submitted, various of the providers who had rendered services to Patka began billing Patka directly. She received the first of these billing notices before she was discharged from the hospital and eventually was threatened with collection agency action. In December 1982 the bills were still unpaid, and Patka obtained the services of Pinzur to secure the benefits she claimed were due under the group insurance policy. According to the terms of a written agreement Pinzur was to receive 33V3% of the gross amount it recovered from Hartford on behalf of Patka whether by suit, settlement, or otherwise.

Pinzur notified Hartford that it claimed an attorney’s lien upon any recovery secured for Patka in letters received by Hartford on December 6, 1982, and December 20, 1982. In the second of these letters Pinzur confirmed a telephone conversation with Hartford in which Hartford had acknowledged its liability to Patka for medical/ hospital coverage. Hartford had also explained that the delay in payment of the claim was due to an audit of the individual hospital bills by the insurer’s home office and that when the audit was completed, Patka’s bills would be paid. A December 27, 1982, letter from Hartford to Pinzur also stated that Patka’s file was being reviewed by Hartford’s home office. An affidavit and attached exhibits filed by Hartford’s health claims manager indicate that an audit of Patka’s hospital bill by Hartford discovered an overcharge in the amount of $4,507.66. Another exhibit shows repayment of the overcharge by the hospital.

Starting on January 11, 1983, Hartford began issuing drafts payable directly to the treating hospital and physicians. These checks were made payable only to the providers; Pinzur was not named as an additional payee on any of them. The total amount paid to the providers was $35,757.33. On March 23, 1983, a draft in the amount of $2,313.44, for disability benefits rather than medical expenses, was issued jointly to Patka and Pinzur.

In numerous communications subsequent to its December 14 notice of claim for lien, Pinzur repeatedly demanded that Hartford honor its lien by including it as a payee on drafts to Patka or the various providers. Pinzur’s letters of February 1, 1983, February 8, 1983, and March 10, 1983, were directed initially to matters concerning Patka’s benefits under the Hartford policy and merely added a request that Hartford name Pinzur as a payee pursuant to its lien. Letters sent by Pinzur on February 16, 1983, May 2, 1983, and June 13, 1983, dealt only with the lien claimed by Pinzur. Ultimately, Pinzur filed suit against Hartford seeking enforcement of its lien.

On June 13, 1986, the trial court denied Hartford’s motion for summary judgment and granted Pinzur’s cross-motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability. Subsequently, the lower court granted Pinzur’s motion for summary judgment as to damages. Based upon the one-third contingent fee contract between Pinzur and Patka, and the $35,757.33 paid to the providers, the court entered judgment for plaintiff in the amount of $11,917.91. Hartford then timely filed this appeal.

Both orders appealed from granted motions for summary judgment. Summary judgment should be granted only when there are no genuine issues of material fact yet to be decided by a trier of fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. (Marquette National Bank v. Walgreen Co. (1984), 126 Ill. App. 3d 680, 682, 467 N.E.2d 954; Bohnen International, Inc. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. (1983), 120 Ill. App. 3d 657, 662, 458 N.E.2d 644.) Defendant maintains that Pinzur was not entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law.

Hartford raises a threshold legal question regarding the viability of Pinzur’s lien. Pinzur had sent Hartford a notice of lien claim pursuant to “An Act creating attorney’s lien and for enforcement of same” (hereinafter cited as Attorney’s Lien Act or Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 13, par. 14), which states in pertinent part:

“Attorneys at law shall have a lien upon all claims, demands and causes of action *** which may be placed in their hands by their clients for suit or collection, or upon which suit or action has been instituted, for the amount of any fee which may have been agreed upon by and between such attorneys and their clients *** for the services of such attorneys rendered or to be rendered for their clients on account of such suits, claims, demands or causes of action. *** Such lien shall attach to any verdict, judgment or order entered and to any money or property which may be recovered, on account of such suits, claims, demands or causes of action, from and after the time of service of the notice.”

Relying on the language in the admission contract authorizing direct payment to the hospital and doctors, Hartford contends that Patka assigned to the providers her rights under the group insurance policy and thus had no claim, demand, or cause of action to place in Pinzur’s hands for suit or collection. Defendant concludes that Pinzur’s attempt to enforce his alleged lien is futile since no subject is available to which the lien might attach. We are persuaded by the facts and record of this case that Hartford’s argument is ineffective since the admission contract clause on which it relies does not amount to an assignment.

First of all, the clause is part of an agreement between Patka and the provider hospital. It does not appear to us from the agreement that the parties intended the clause to be an assignment.

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Bluebook (online)
511 N.E.2d 1281, 158 Ill. App. 3d 871, 110 Ill. Dec. 961, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2912, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-s-pinzur-ltd-v-the-hartford-illappct-1987.