SPRINGFIELD – Supreme Court Justices decided to review a ruling that Midwest Sanitary Services of Wood River can seek reimbursement of a verdict for punitive damages through a legal malpractice suit.
The Justices allowed leave for the Sandberg Phoenix firm of St. Louis and its lawyers John Gilbert and Narcisa Symank to appeal on Sept. 29.
Fifth District appellate judges ruled in April that Midwest’s claim for compensatory damages could include recovery of punitive damages.
Gilbert and Symank represented Midwest, owner Nancy Donovan, and employee Bob Evans at a wrongful termination trial in Madison County in 2015.
Jurors awarded plaintiff Paul Crane $160,000 in compensatory damages against Midwest, Donovan, and Evans.
They awarded $625,000 in punitive damages against Midwest.
Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth entered the verdict, and Fifth District judges affirmed him in 2017.
Midwest, Donovan, and Evans retained George Ripplinger of Belleville, and suit was filed in 2018 against Sandberg Phoenix, Gilbert and Symank.
The lawsuit claimed defendants failed to list all witnesses they intended to call, resulting in six being barred.
It claimed they failed to identify a customer’s message as lost or destroyed, resulting in a jury instruction on missing evidence.
It claimed they forfeited appellate argument regarding the instruction.
And, it claimed they refused to discuss a potential settlement with opposing counsel Lee Barron of Alton.
Ripplinger requested $603,932.03 plus costs on behalf of Midwest, Donovan, and Evans, and $1,068,932.03 on behalf of Midwest only.
In 2019, defendants moved to strike a portion of the complaint seeking reimbursement of the punitive damages.
Former circuit judge David Dugan denied the motion, finding no just reason to deny Midwest the opportunity to recover its actual loss.
Sandberg Phoenix moved for reconsideration or certification for immediate appeal.
Dugan certified it, asking the Fifth District whether Illinois bars recovery of punitive damages where a client alleges the jury would have awarded no punitive damages or a lesser sum.
Midwest, Donovan, and Evans argued at the Fifth District that between them and the lawyers, the damages were compensatory in nature.
Justices Randy Moore, Mark Boie, and John Barberis agreed.
Moore wrote that punitive damages assessed as a proximate result of professional negligence are not punitive in the context of a subsequent malpractice action but are instead compensatory.
Justice David Overstreet took no part in the Supreme Court decision.
Attorneys Gary Meadows and Theodore MacDonald, of Hepler Broom in Edwardsville, represented Sandberg Phoenix.