On June 7, the Chicago professional liability defense team of partner Ryan Brown, senior counsel Paul Gamboa and associate Meghan Dalton won dismissal with prejudice of a lawsuit brought against a well-known Chicagoland property receiver in the Circuit Court of Kane County.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs alleged breach of fiduciary duties, waste, and negligence by the defendant court-appointed receiver for his actions related to the plaintiffs’ commercial real estate valued at more than $6 million.
Gordon & Rees argued that the plaintiffs were estopped from bringing a civil action because they failed to properly and timely object to or otherwise contest the receiver’s allegedly improper actions prior to the dismissal of the foreclosure action. In addition, Gordon & Rees argued that because the plaintiffs failed to allege facts that would sufficiently demonstrate the defendant acted in contravention of his duties as an appointed officer of the court, the defendant court-appointed receiver enjoyed judicial immunity from the lawsuit.
After extensive briefing and more than two hours of oral argument by Gamboa, the court determined that the plaintiffs' complaint failed as a matter of law. In addition, despite the general rule in Illinois that leave to amend is to be freely granted, the court denied the plaintiffs' request to replead, agreeing with Gamboa that the legal deficiencies could not be cured through an amended complaint.