Stoia v. Cusniriuc

2025 IL App (1st) 232160-U
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided January 17, 2025·No. 1-23-2160·Unpublished

Opinion

2025 IL App (1st) 232160-U No. 1-23-2160

Order filed January 17, 2025

Fifth Division

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT

GHERASIM (A/K/A SAM) AND LIDIA STOIA, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiffs-Appellees, ) Cook County.

)

v. ) No. 22 L 3834 )

CORNELIA AND DANIEL CUSNIRIUC, ) Honorable Thomas More Donnelly, ) Judge, Presiding.

Defendants-Appellants. )

JUSTICE NAVARRO delivered the judgment of the court.

Presiding Justice Mikva and Justice Mitchell concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The circuit court properly granted plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement; affirmed.

¶2 Defendants, Cornelia and Daniel Cusniriuc, appeal from the circuit court’s order denying their motion to reconsider the court’s order granting the motion to enforce the settlement agreement filed by plaintiffs, Gherasim (a/k/a Sam) and Lidia Stoia. Following a pretrial settlement conference with the circuit court, the court entered an order dismissing the case pursuant to settlement. The court subsequently granted plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement. On appeal, defendants argue that the circuit court erred when it granted plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement because the parties did not have a meeting of the minds as to the

essential terms of the agreement, there were terms and conditions expressly left to future agreement, and a written agreement was a condition precedent to any settlement. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶3 I. BACKGROUND

¶4 Defendants and plaintiffs live in a two-unit condominium building in Lincolnwood, Illinois. Plaintiffs own Unit One, which consists of the first floor and the basement, and defendants own Unit Two, which consists of the second floor. The mechanical equipment for defendants’ Unit Two, which includes the furnace, hot water heater, and electrical boxes, is located in the basement of plaintiffs’ Unit One. This court previously affirmed the circuit court’s declaratory judgment finding that defendants, as owners of Unit Two, “had an implied easement by preexisting use to install and access their mechanical equipment in the basement” of plaintiffs’ unit. Cusniriuc v. Stoia, 2022 IL App (1st) 200495-U, ¶ 2.

¶5 In 2022, plaintiffs filed a complaint against defendants, alleging that defendants caused significant damage to their property relating to, among other things, an improperly installed deck over plaintiffs’ unit, water leaks in defendants’ bathrooms, and improperly installed duct work. Plaintiffs also asserted a claim for contribution to common expenses, alleging that defendants have refused to pay their share of common expenses.

¶6 On May 24, 2023, and June 16, 2023, the parties participated in a pretrial settlement conference with the circuit court. On June 16, 2023, the court entered a written order that stated: “This matter is dismissed with prejudice pursuant to settlement with the court to retain jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement.”

¶7 Plaintiffs’ Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement

¶8 On August 29, 2023, plaintiffs filed a motion to enforce the settlement, in which it stated that on May 24, 2023, and June 16, 2023, the parties engaged in a pretrial settlement conference with the court that resulted in settlement. Plaintiffs stated that after the June 16, 2023, settlement conference, defendants’ counsel indicated he would prepare the first draft, after which plaintiffs’ counsel followed up with defendants’ counsel several times checking on the status of the draft. Plaintiffs asserted that on July 7, 2023, defendants’ counsel emailed plaintiffs’ counsel the first draft of the agreement, which “did not include many of the major terms of the agreement as was discussed and agreed to at the settlement conference.” Plaintiffs further stated that, on July 31, 2023, plaintiffs’ counsel emailed a revised draft to defendants’ counsel, “which included all the terms that were agreed to by the parties during the settlement conference.” Thereafter, plaintiffs’ counsel followed up with defendants’ counsel on “numerous occasions to determine the status of the settlement agreement” and then plaintiffs filed the motion to enforce settlement after counsel did not hear from defendants’ counsel.

¶9 Plaintiffs attached to their motion the email exchanges between the attorneys from June 17, 2023, to July 31, 2023. In defendants’ counsel’s email on July 7, 2023, counsel attached the initial draft and stated: “[H]ere’s the draft Settlement Agreement. I am still tweaking it. However, please review and let me know your thoughts.”

¶ 10 In a written order on September 28, 2023, the circuit court granted plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement and ordered the parties “to have a fully executed agreement within 7 days.” The record does not contain a transcript of any proceedings that took place on September 28, 2023.

¶ 11 Defendants’ Motion to Reconsider

¶ 12 Defendants filed a motion to reconsider the court’s order granting plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement in which they provided a summary of their version of the May 24, 2023, and June 16, 2023, pretrial settlement conferences and attached an affidavit in support of their summary. According to defendants, the May 24, 2023, pretrial conference was dedicated to plaintiffs’ monetary demands, with plaintiffs initially demanding $1.2 million and then reducing it to $275,000, and defendants offering $75,000. Defendants stated that plaintiffs demanded that defendants’ mechanical equipment be relocated from the basement to the attic, and defendants proposed the idea of creating a separate mechanical room for their equipment in the corner of the basement. According to defendants, plaintiffs insisted that it would cost between $20,000 to $30,000 to relocate the equipment to the attic, and defendants insisted that it would cost more than $75,000.

¶ 13 Further, according to defendants, during the June 16, 2023, pretrial settlement conference, plaintiffs reduced their monetary demand, and defendants increased their offer to $100,000, “which would have been paid by their insurer.” Defendants asserted that “[t]o [their] understanding, the $100,000 payment was contingent on [plaintiffs] executing a comprehensive release of all claims addressing any and all issues they raised in this matter, as well as confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses.” As for the relocation of defendants’ mechanical equipment to the attic, defendants stated that they “again specifically advised the Court and [plaintiffs] that such project would be very involved and very costly” and that the court and plaintiffs insisted that it would cost no more than $30,000. Defendants stated that plaintiffs “were persuaded to accept to split equally the entire cost of the attic relocation” and that “[b]ased on the Court’s advice, [defendants] agreed to consider this.” Defendants stated that the June 16, 2023, conference “ended abruptly while the parties were still negotiating” when the court’s clerk walked

in with the court’s draft order dismissing the matter pursuant to settlement. According to defendants, this surprised the parties and their counsels “as at that time there was still no clear meeting of the minds regarding the non-monetary terms of a possible settlement.”

¶ 14 Defendants further stated that on July 7, 2023, they sent plaintiffs a proposed settlement agreement “containing the terms which were discussed and negotiated including a comprehensive release of all claims, covenant not to sue, confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses, roof repair and insurance acquisition clauses.” On July 31, 2023, plaintiffs responded “with a heavily modified version of the proposed agreement.”

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