As expected, Madison County Circuit Judge George Moran held a clean-up docket on March 30 knocking off more than 100 idle cases.
And, in a separate hearing Wednesday, Moran also dismissed a suit filed by Southern Illinois University student Molly Alter, who filed a suit against Starbucks Jan. 23, 2004, claiming that hot coffee burned her so badly she had to miss an entire semester of school.
Moran ruled that SIUE--where Alter purchased her coffee--is a state entity and has total control over the Starbucks. If Alter wished to pursue her case, she should go through the Illinois Court of Claims in Springfield, he said.
Moran said most of the cases dismissed from his docket were by “agreement or consent” of both parties in the cases.
“I thought the docket went well and efficiently, many cases were disposed of quietly without ruffling feathers,” Moran commented.
A majority of the cases on the docket were dismissed because there has been no activity in at least a year, while some cases were reset for a case management conference.
Not all of the cases were dismissed, however. Some cases have a stay order by a federal bankruptcy judge until proceedings in federal court are completed.