2024 IL App (1st) 220743-U No. 1-22-0743
FIRST DIVISION April 29, 2024
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 ____________________________________________________________________________
U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS ) Appeal from the Circuit Court of TRUSTEE FOR JPMORGAN MORTGAGE ) Cook County. ACQUISITION TRUST 2006-CW1, ) ) ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) No. 2020 CH 02162 ) v. ) ) TERENCE CHANCELLOR and DOROTHY ) CHANCELLOR, ) The Honorable ) Marian E. Perkins, Defendant-Appellants. ) Judge Presiding.
____________________________________________________________________________
JUSTICE PUCINSKI delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Fitzgerald Smith and Justice Coghlan concurred in the judgment.
ORDER
Held: In this mortgage foreclosure action, we affirm the decision of the circuit court granting plaintiff summary judgment and confirming the judicial sale of the property, where the record is insufficient to assess any claims of error.
¶1 In this mortgage foreclosure action, defendant-appellants Terence and Dorothy Chancellor
(defendants) appealed after the circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff-
appellee U.S. Bank National Association as Trustee for JPMorgan Mortgage Acquisition Trust 1-22-0743
2006-CW1 (“U.S. Bank”) and confirmed the subsequent judicial sale of the subject property. For
the following reasons, we affirm.
¶2 BACKGROUND
¶3 This action stems from a loan and mortgage executed by Terence Chancellor (Terence),
the husband of Dorothy Chancellor. The record reflects that on February 17, 2006, Terence
executed a promissory note in the amount of $189,000 to the original lender, Countrywide Home
Loans, Inc. The note required him to make monthly payments of $1181.25 for the first 60 months,
to be followed by monthly payments in the amount of $1396.69. On the same date, Terence
executed a corresponding mortgage that encumbered the defendants’ residence at 252 S. Ellis
Avenue in Glenwood, Illinois (the property).
¶4 In February 2009, Terence executed a “Loan Modification Agreement (Step Rate”) that
identified Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP (Countrywide) as the “Lender.” The loan
modification agreement stated that the initial monthly payment would be in the amount of $735.49,
but that the “scheduled monthly payment may change on that day of every twelfth month
thereafter” as set forth elsewhere in the agreement. The agreement elsewhere specified that the
applicable interest rate would increase each year on March 1, the “Change Date”, with a new
monthly payment to be calculated by Countrywide. Notably, the copy of the loan modification
agreement in the record reflects that it was signed by Terence on February 18, 2009. However, the
signature block for Countrywide reflects that it was not executed until October 15, 2014 by
Kenneth Hampton, identified as a “Document Control Officer.”
¶5 A rider to the loan modification agreement recites the parties’ understanding that
“Borrower [Terence] was discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding after the execution of
the Note and Security Instruments” but that the loan modification agreement “does not affect the
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discharge of Borrower’s personal liability on the Note.” That rider contains a signature by Terence
dated February 18, 2009, but the document reflects that it was executed on October 15, 2014, by
“Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. as Attorney in Fact” for Countrywide.
¶6 On February 21, 2020, U.S. Bank filed a foreclosure complaint naming defendants, as well
as “Unknown Tenants” and “Unknown Owners and Non-Record Claimants.” According to the
complaint, the loan was in default due to “the failure to make the March 1, 2010 and subsequent
monthly installment payments due under the terms of the mortgage and note.” Copies of the loan
and mortgage were attached to U.S. Bank’s complaint as Exhibits A and B. A copy of the loan
modification agreement was attached as Exhibit C.
¶7 U.S. Bank’s complaint also attached assignments reflecting that (1) in February 2012, the
mortgage was assigned to “Bank of America, N.A., Successor by Merger to BA Home Loans
Services, LP FKA Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP” and (2) in September 2013, the
mortgage was assigned to U.S. Bank.
¶8 Defendants represented themselves in trial court proceedings and remain pro se in this
appeal. In March 2020, defendants filed an answer and a motion to dismiss alleging seven
affirmative defenses. Among these, they alleged that U.S. Bank lacked standing and capacity to
sue because the “Original Lender was Fremont Investment and Loan” and that the original date of
mortgage was January 31, 2005. Thus, they alleged the complaint was a “fraud.” They also alleged
that when Countrywide solicited Terence for a refinance of his mortgage in 2006, it committed
“predatory lending” and violated the “Truth in lending Act (TILA).” The motion to dismiss also
stated that the mortgage “was the subject of a federal bankruptcy” filed by Terence in 2018 “of
which Defendant[s] Mortgage amount due was discharged.”
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¶9 Another affirmative defense was entitled “Expiration of the 10 year Illinois Statute of
Limitations.” Defendants alleged that after Terence signed a loan modification agreement in
February 2009, they “never made any additional payments on the step rate 2/5/2009 loan
modification agreement after July 2009 because in August of 2009 Bank of America, the then loan
servicer, offered Defendants a Making home affordable trial Payment Plan agreement of which
Defendants accepted, with 3 payments required in the amount of $950 which were Completed in
September 2009, October 2009, [and] November 2009.” Defendants pleaded that “[a]s of March
23, 2020 there have been no payments made within the last 11+ years on the loan modification
step rate agreement dated February 5, 2009 wherefore Plaintiff’s Complaint is Time barred by the
10 year statute of limitation of contracts.”
¶ 10 Defendants also asserted an affirmative defense of “unclean hands”, insofar as the February
2009 loan rate modification “remained unexecuted for 5+ years until a servicer on behalf of
Plaintiff [nominee] Select Portfolio Servicing document officer Kenneth Hampton, without
Defendants consent and without clear authority executed the step rate note 5+ years later” in
October 2014. In another affirmative defense, defendants alleged that they “received an offer from
the new loan servicer Bank of America who offered Defendants a Making Homes Affordable
Contract (TPP) trial payment plan contract which requires 3 consecutive payments of $950.00.”
Defendants pleaded that they made those payments in 2009, but U.S. Bank “did not comply with
the Trial Payment Plan contract agreement.”
¶ 11 The motion to dismiss attached several exhibits, including an August 2011 letter from the
Office of the Illinois Attorney General reflecting that it was “reviewing [Terence’s] complaint”
regarding Bank of America. Defendants also attached a September 2011 letter from Bank of
America in response to a complaint from Terence, which stated:
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“In your correspondence, you stated that you have been trying to
obtain a permanent modification since 2008 and in November 2010
Bank of America stated that the agreed trial payments of $930.00
would not be accepted [because] the investor JP Morgan/Chase does
not participate in the Making Homes Affordable (MHA) program
and/or The Attorney General (AG) program. You expressed
dissatisfaction with the inquiry of your communication as well as
with the level of customer service you received from Bank of
America. You further expressed concern regarding not receiving a
modification decline letter and your property being placed in
foreclosure. * * *
Our records indicate a modification was approved February 29,
2008 and in January 2009 your file was re-opened for loan
modification due to your account being delinquent. Your file was
approved in August 2009 for a trial payment plan for September
2009, October 2009 and November 2009. In September 2009 the
modification agreement was received and it was notated that
additional and/or updated financial information would be needed to
proceed with permanent loan modification review. The information
was received and your loan was referred to our MHA department in
February 2010. In November 2010, a Bank of America
representative informed you that your file was no longer in review
as the investor did not participate in the MHA/AG loan modification
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programs. On April 18, 2011 you were advised that your
modification was not a decline as the review was not completed
because the investor did not participate and on May 17, 2011 a Bank
of America representative stated that no official MHA decline letter
was sent.”
¶ 12 The September 2011 letter stated that Bank of America had “opened yet another review of
your account for available modification options” and but told Terence that he needed to provide
updated financial information for Bank of America to be able to “review your loan for possible
modification.”
¶ 13 U.S. Bank filed a response to the motion to dismiss in August 2020. U.S. Bank argued that
defendants had not set forth facts with the requisite specificity for affirmative defenses of fraud or
unclean hands. U.S. Bank argued that letter from Bank of America did not support an affirmative
defense, as it merely stated that “Defendants were offered prior modification agreements.”
¶ 14 Following a hearing, the court denied the motion to dismiss on September 30, 2020. In the
corresponding written order, the court noted that defendants were advised “to retain counsel and
will be provided with the ‘Resource Guide for Self-Represented Litigants’ by the Court.”
¶ 15 On October 15, 2020, defendants filed a “Motion for an Entry of Final Order.” In that
motion, they stated they had not been able to obtain counsel “after multiple efforts to find an
attorney to take a forma pauperis case.” On October 16, 2020, the court denied the “Motion for an
Entry of a Final Order” but noted defendants had made an oral motion to reconsider the denial of
their motion to dismiss. The court allowed briefing on the motion to reconsider.
¶ 16 Following briefing, on October 29, 2020 the trial court entered a written order again
denying defendants’ motion to dismiss, noting that the court “heard oral arguments on all seven”
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of the affirmative defenses. The trial court found that U.S. Bank had made a prima facie case of
standing because its complaint attached the note indorsed in blank. The court directed defendants
to answer the complaint.
¶ 17 In November 2020, defendants filed a motion asking the trial judge to recuse herself due
to her “clear bias” against defendants.
¶ 18 Also in November 2020, defendants filed a “motion to vacate” the October 29, 2020 order.
Among several arguments in that motion, defendants averred that they made “trial payments of
$950 each for September 2009, October 2009, and November 2009” based on an agreement with
the “prior loan servicer which turned out to be fraud.” Defendants also maintained that the
foreclosure action was time-barred because it was brought more than 10 years after their final
mortgage payment. Attached to this motion was a Western Union receipt of a payment to
Countrywide Home Loans dated July 2, 2009, which defendant labeled as the “Last Mortgage
Payment.” Defendants also submitted an affidavit in which Terrence stated that the “last mortgage
note payment” was made on July 2, 2009.
¶ 19 On December 1, 2020, the motion for recusal was stricken without prejudice for want of
prosecution. Three days later, defendant filed a “2nd motion for recusal” which was denied.
¶ 20 On December 24, 2020, the court denied defendants’ motion to reconsider the October
2020 order denying their motion to dismiss. The court specified that defendants’ “7 affirmative
defenses are stricken with prejudice.”
¶ 21 Notwithstanding that denial, in January 2021, defendants filed a motion to amend their
motion to dismiss, which sought to add new allegations to their affirmative defenses. In support,
Terence submitted an “Affidavit of Truth.” In it, he asserted that he “was offered a step Loan
Modification Agreement on February 5, 2009 by Countrywide Home Loan” that he signed in
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February 2009, but “the agreement was not executed until 5 years later on October 15, 2014 by a
non[-]employee of Countrywide.” He again asserted the last payment on the note was on July 2,
2009.
¶ 22 Terence further averred that Bank of America subsequently offered him a “Making Homes
Affordable HAMP Trial Payment Plan Agreement,” which was to effect a permanent loan
modification after he made three payments of $950 each in September 2009, October 2009, and
November 2009. 1 He claimed that the payments were made but the agreement to modify the loan
was not honored. 2 Terence also averred that due to his federal bankruptcy proceeding, “no
additional mortgage payments [were] required” after August 2018.
¶ 23 In February 2021, defendants filed an answer and asserted eight affirmative defenses. In
their answer, defendants denied the validity of the note and mortgage, denied the alleged March
2020 default, and asserted that any personal liability on the debt had been discharged through
Terence’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding. Their affirmative defenses included the seven
previously asserted defenses, as well as a new allegation that they were not provided with proper
notice of acceleration of the loan. In March 2020, U.S. Bank moved to strike the affirmative
defenses.
¶ 24 On March 23, 2021, the trial court entered an order that permitted defendants’ amendment
to their motion to dismiss, but denied that amended motion. At the same time, the court struck each
of the eight affirmative defenses with prejudice and directed defendant to issue written discovery.
The record reflects that defendants issued discovery requests, to which U.S. Bank responded.
1 In subsequent submissions, defendants stated that the correct monthly payment amount was actually $930, not $950. 2 Defendants stated that they subsequently sued Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Select Portfolio Servicing in federal court and entered into a settlement with Bank of America.
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¶ 25 On July 12, 2021, defendants filed three separate motions to dismiss. The first motion
asserted that U.S. Bank committed fraud by failing to honor an alleged “trial payment plan”
agreement that was to permanently modify defendants’ payment obligation to $930 per month,
after defendants made three such payments in September 2009, October 2009, and November
¶ 26 In the same motion, defendant averred that they “did make the March 2010 payment” that
was relied upon in the foreclosure complaint and that this payment was confirmed by documents
produced in discovery. Defendants attached a Bank of America “home loan history statement with
transaction details” addressed to Terence showing transactions over several years. These included
a number of transactions in 2010, including March 2010, showing certain payments in the amount
of $930 (which were labeled only as “Misc. Posting”), as well as payments in the amount of
$1679.09 which were labeled as “Regular Payment.” Defendants circled certain of these
transactions and (in handwriting) labeled them as “HAMP Fraud Violation of the Trial Payment
Plan Agreement.” Defendant also submitted another affidavit from Terence in which he stated that
U.S. Bank “was the entity that breached” the “promised trial payment plan (TPP) agreement by
not allowing the modification to be completed” despite him making the three trial payments in
¶ 27 Defendants’ second motion to dismiss asserted that three notices of default provided to
defendants in 2014 were ineffective because they had been served by a non-party to the litigation,
Select Portfolio Servicing, rather than by U.S. Bank. In a third motion, defendants claimed that
Select Portfolio Servicing’s employee, Kenneth Hampton, made several fraudulent statements
about the mortgage. Defendants asserted, inter alia, that Hampton’s execution of the step rate loan
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modification on October 15, 2014, five years after Terence signed it in February 2009, was
unauthorized and constituted fraud and “unclean hands.”
¶ 28 On July 28, 2021, defendant filed three additional motions to dismiss on grounds that were
substantially identical to those asserted in the three motions filed on July 12, 2021.
¶ 29 On August 3, 2021, the trial court entered an order reflecting that it had heard argument on
defendants’ motions to dismiss and denied the three motions filed on July 12, 2021. The court
subsequently entered an order clarifying that it had also considered the three additional motions to
dismiss filed on July 28, 2021, and similarly denied those motions.
¶ 30 On September 27, 2021, U.S. Bank moved for summary judgment and for judgment of
foreclosure and sale. Although the record on appeal includes the notice of motion, the record does
not contain the contents of the actual motion for summary judgment or any supporting
memorandum, affidavits, or exhibits filed by U.S. Bank.
¶ 31 Defendants filed their response to the motion on November 12, 2021. In that response,
defendants referred to the claims asserted in the July 28, 2021 motions to dismiss, including
allegations of fraud and the alleged failure provide the required notice of acceleration. Defendants
also maintained that documents from Bank of America proved that they had, in fact, made the
requisite monthly payments “before and after March 1, 2010.” There is no dispute that defendants
did not submit any counteraffidavit in opposition to U.S. Bank’s motion for summary judgment.
¶ 32 In December 2021, U.S. Bank filed a reply in which it argued that defendants’ failure to
file a counteraffidavit “result[ed] in the admission of the facts in [U.S. Bank’s] affidavit that the
loan was in default, the loan was properly accelerated, the date of the default, and the amount due
and owing under the term of the Note and Mortgage.” U.S. Bank further argued that a loan servicer
may properly serve a notice of acceleration. Insofar as defendants claimed they made payments
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before and after March 2010, U.S. Bank argued there were no supporting exhibits, and otherwise
argued that “a borrower can make payments after the date of default and not advance the date of
default.”
¶ 33 On December 28, 2021, defendants filed a motion for leave to file a response to U.S. Bank’s
reply brief. In that filing, defendants suggested that any obligation to make the March 2010
monthly payment under the note had been discharged through Terence’s bankruptcy case in 2018,
such that foreclosure could not be premised on failure to make that payment. Defendants elsewhere
acknowledged they had “not paid the mortgage in many years” but asserted the “lack of payments
resulted from breach of the trial payment contract.” Defendants also disputed the validity of notices
of default sent by Select Portfolio Servicing.
¶ 34 The record on appeal does not contain any transcript of proceedings corresponding to the
motion for summary judgment. On January 10, 2022, the trial court entered summary judgment in
favor of U.S. Bank, as well as a judgment of foreclosure that specified that “by virtue of the
mortgage and the affidavits presented as evidence of indebtedness,” U.S. Bank had a valid lien on
the property in the amounts “accounted for in the Affidavits filed by [U.S. Bank].”
¶ 35 U.S. Bank purchased the property at the subsequent foreclosure sale on April 11, 2022. On
May 4, 2022, the court entered an order confirming the judicial sale and directing the sheriff to
evict defendants from the property. The record on appeal does not contain any transcript of
proceedings corresponding to the entry of that order.
¶ 36 Defendants filed a notice of appeal on May 24, 2022 using a preprinted form. In the space
on the form asking to “List the date of every order or judgment you want to appeal”, defendants
listed only “May 4, 2022”, corresponding to the date of the confirmation of judicial sale.
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¶ 37 Defendants filed a common law record but did not file a report of proceedings containing
any transcripts from the trial court proceedings. Defendants filed a docketing statement on June
10, 2022, in which they indicated that transcripts were not available and a “bystander report will
be provided.” Defendants drafted an “Appellants Bystander Report” that is inserted in their
opening brief as their statement of facts, although there is no indication that it was ever provided
to U.S. Bank for review, or that it was certified by the trial court. No other bystander’s report is
contained in the record on appeal.
¶ 38 ANALYSIS
¶ 39 For the following reasons, we are compelled to affirm the judgment of the circuit court.
¶ 40 First, we observe that defendants’ pro se briefing is difficult to follow, largely because it
does not comply with Supreme Court Rule 341 in several respects. 3 However, read liberally,
defendants appear to challenge the entry of summary judgment on several alternative grounds.4
Specifically, they suggest (1) the foreclosure complaint was untimely; (2) foreclosure was
precluded by breach of a “trial payment plan agreement with Bank of America”; (3) the defendants
did in fact make the March 2010 mortgage payment, as demonstrated by Bank of America
documents; (4) defendants did not receive the required notice of default; and (5) Kenneth
3 Among other violations of Rule 341, defendants’ opening brief does not contain a statement of facts with proper citations to the record. See Ill. S. Ct. R. 341(h)(6) (eff. Oct. 1, 2020) (A statement of facts “shall contain the facts necessary to an understanding of the case, stated accurately and fairly without argument or comment, and with appropriate reference to the pages of the record on appeal.”). Further, the one-page “Argument” portion of defendants’ opening brief violates the requirement that argument “shall contain the contentions of the appellant and the reasons therefore, with citation of the authorities and the pages of record relied on.” (Emphasis added.) Ill. S. Ct. R. 341(h)(7) (eff. Oct. 1, 2020). 4 Defendants’ notice of appeal identified only the May 2022 order confirming the judicial sale; it did not list the prior orders granting summary judgment and entering a judgment of foreclosure. However, this court has held in similar circumstances that the failure to list prior orders in the notice of appeal does not deprive us of jurisdiction. See CitiMortgage, Inc. v. Bukowski, 2015 IL App (1st) 140780, ¶¶ 12-14 (rejecting foreclosure plaintiff’s argument that dismissal was warranted because “the only order specified in defendants’ notice of appeal was the order confirming the judicial sale,” not the prior orders dismissing affirmative defenses and granting summary judgment to plaintiff).
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Hampton, an employee of Select Portfolio Servicing, “presented himself as a Document Control
for Countrywide while not being an employee of Countrywide Home Loan which is Fraud.”
¶ 41 Summary judgment is appropriate “if the pleadings, depositions, and admissions on file,
together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and
that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” 735 ILCS 5/2-1005(c) (West
2022). Summary judgment in a mortgage foreclosure case is subject to de novo review. U.S. Bank,
Nat. Ass’n v. Avdic, 2014 IL App (1st) 121759, ¶ 18. A mortgagee establishes a prima facie case
for foreclosure with the introduction of the mortgage and note, after which the burden of proof
shifts to the borrower to prove any affirmative defense. PNC Bank, Nat. Ass’n v. Zubel, 2014 IL
App (1st) 130976, ¶ 18. Here, the record shows U.S. Bank established a prima facie case for
foreclosure because its complaint attached the mortgage and note. The burden thus shifted to
defendants “to prove any applicable affirmative defense.” Id.
¶ 42 On the record before us, we cannot say the defendants proved any affirmative defense to
avoid summary judgment. As appellants, it is “defendants’ burden to present a sufficiently
complete record to support their arguments and any inadequacies in the record will be held against
them. [Citation.]” Palm v. 2800 Lake Shore Condominium Ass’n, 2014 IL App (1st) 111290, ¶
108. Where an issue relates to the conduct of a hearing or proceeding, the issue is “not subject to
review absent a report or record of the proceeding. Instead, absent a record, ‘it [is] presumed that
the order entered by the trial court [is] in conformity with the law and had a sufficient factual
basis.’ ” Webster v. Hartman, 195 Ill. 2d 426, 432 (2001) (quoting Foutch v. O’Bryant, 99 Ill. 2d
389, 392 (1984)).
¶ 43 This well-settled rule precludes defendants from successfully challenging summary
judgment. This court has reviewed the 600+ page common law record on appeal. Although it
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contains numerous filings, crucially, the record does not contain U.S. Bank’s motion for summary
judgment or the supporting affidavits relied upon by the trial court in granting summary judgment.
Nor does it contain a report of proceedings from the relevant hearings. Further, we cannot consider
the “Bystanders Report” contained in defendants’ brief because it does not comply with governing
Supreme Court Rule 323(c) (eff. July 1, 2017) and thus it is not part of the record on appeal. 5
¶ 44 Without the ability to review the contents of U.S. Bank’s submission in support of its
motion for summary judgment or the content of any hearing, we are not in position to assess any
error by the trial court in granting summary judgment. Instead, we must presume the judgment had
a legal and factual basis. Webster, 195 Ill. 2d at 432.
¶ 45 We further note that “[f]acts contained in an affidavit in support of a motion for summary
judgment which are not contradicted by counteraffidavit are admitted and must be taken as true
for purpose of the motion.” U.S. Bank, Nat. Ass’n v. Avdic, 2014 IL App (1st) 121759, ¶ 31.
Although the record shows that defendants prepared various affidavits in support of earlier
motions, there is nothing in the record to indicate that defendants submitted a counteraffidavit to
oppose U.S. Bank’s motion for summary judgment.
¶ 46 We note the record includes some documentation that appears to corroborate at least some
of the defendants’ factual claims, including the “trial payment plan” and a payment made on the
loan in March 2010. It is apparent that defendants could have benefited from the assistance of
counsel to present their arguments and evidence. This case is a good example of why pro se
5 Rule 323(c) contemplates that an appellant shall submit a proposed bystander’s report to all parties “within 28 days after the notice of appeal is filed”, after which appellees have 14 days to submit proposed amendments. Id. However, there is no dispute that defendants did not submit their proposed bystander’s report to U.S. Bank. Moreover, Rule 323(c) calls for the appellant to “present the proposed report *** to the trial court for settlement and approval,” after which the trial court “shall promptly settle, certify and order filed an accurate report of proceedings.” Id. There is no indication that the trial court ever approved or certified the report drafted by defendants. “Absent stipulation, only the report of proceedings so certified shall be included in the record on appeal.” Ill. S. Ct. R. 323(c) (eff. July 1, 2017).
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litigants should take advantage of help services available at the trial level. However, given the state
of the record and the briefs before us, we cannot assess whether there were meritorious defenses
to foreclosure, and thus we cannot reverse the entry of summary judgment.
¶ 47 We also note that, to the extent that defendants seek to challenge the May 2022
confirmation of the judicial sale, the failure to include a transcript or other record of proceedings
similarly precludes any finding of error. In any event, pursuant to section 15-1508 of the Mortgage
Foreclosure law, “the circuit court shall confirm the sale of the property unless it finds that one of
four grounds existed to disapprove the sale: ‘(i) a notice required in accordance with subsection
(c) of Section 15-1507 was not given, (ii) the terms of the sale were unconscionable, (iii) the sale
was conducted fraudulently, or (iv) justice was otherwise not done.’ ” Deutsche Bank National
Trust Company as Trustee for Morgan Stanley ABS Capital I Inc. Trust 2004-WMC2 v. Cortez,
2020 IL App (1st) 192234, ¶ 19 (quoting 735 ILCS 5/15-1508(b) (West 2018)). Nowhere does
defendants’ brief cite to this statutory provision or otherwise argue that one of the four bases
therein precluded confirmation of the judicial sale. Thus, any challenge to the May 2022 order is
otherwise forfeited. See Ill. S. Ct. R. 341(h)(7) (“Points not argued are forfeited and shall not be
raised in the reply brief, in oral argument, or on petition for rehearing.”).
¶ 48 In light of the foregoing, we need not further discuss the defendants’ additional violations
of Supreme Court Rules or the remaining contentions in the parties’ briefs.
¶ 49 CONCLUSION
¶ 50 For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the circuit court orders granting summary judgment
to U.S. Bank, entering a judgment of foreclosure, and confirming the judicial sale of the property.
¶ 51 Affirmed.
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