[Download] "Luciani v. Bestor" by Illinois Appellate Court — Third District Affirmed In Part And Reversed In Part ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Luciani v. Bestor
- Author : Illinois Appellate Court — Third District Affirmed In Part And Reversed In Part
- Release Date : January 17, 1982
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 64 KB
Description
Third-party plaintiff-appellant George A. Fuller Company (Fuller) was the contractor on a project for Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (the college). Schmidt, Garden & Erikson was the architect (the architect.) After completion of the project, the college sued Fuller in Federal court for breach of contract; Fuller counterclaimed against the college for breach of contract and filed a claim against the college for breach of contract and filed a claim against the architect for causing it to suffer delay damages. Claims relating to damages suffered by subcontractors were withdrawn from the case by stipulation and demand of the college and the architect. The jury returned verdicts for all defendants on all the claims. Thereafter, one of the subcontractors filed a claim in State court against Fuller for damages resulting from being delayed in performing its subcontract work. Fuller then filed this third-party action against the college and the architect. The trial court dismissed on grounds of collateral estoppel and apparently Page 784 res judicata and also indicated that it believed the third-party complaint did not state a cause of action. It denied a motion for leave to amend the complaint because of its belief that the State action was barred by the prior Federal action. We reverse, holding that the State action is not barred since the parties withdrew the claims in question and in light of the general verdict there is no specific finding upon which a holding of collateral estoppel could be based. Since it appears from the record that the trial court would otherwise have allowed the motion to amend the complaint, we remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings including the desired amendment of the complaint. However we believe that the present complaint does state a valid cause of action against the owner.