MOUNT VERNON – St. Clair County Circuit Judge Christopher Kolker imposed a $3,500 sanction when he could have imposed about 20 times as much, Fifth District appellate judges found on Aug. 3.
They vacated the amount and sent the case back for Kolker to determine a reasonable amount compatible with the evidence.
They found $3,500 didn’t compensate or reimburse defendant Christopher Green, or punish plaintiff Frederick Peet, or deter future vexatious lawsuits.
Peet sued Green in 2017, claiming he alienated the affection of wife Rita Peet at Alton Memorial hospital.
Green worked there as physician and Rita as technologist.
Peet, a physician working for himself, claimed Green’s action resulted in divorce.
He sought actual damages of $85,000 a year from loss of marital contributions.
Green moved to dismiss the complaint, claiming Illinois abolished the alienation of affection statute on Jan. 2, 2016.
Peet’s counsel Larry Bagsby of St. Charles, Mo. responded that the statute applied because Green pursued Rita in 2014 and 2015.
Bagsby added Alton Memorial as defendant in 2019, claiming it negligently supervised Green and retained him while he pursued many married women.
Alton Memorial moved to dismiss the complaint, stating it didn’t employ Green.
Kolker dismissed both defendants and gave Peet 14 days to amend his complaint.
Peet amended it and Kolker dismissed the complaint with prejudice.
At a hearing he said, “I don’t see how you can be successful in the case.”
Green moved for sanctions in 2020, claiming Peet and Bagsby filed frivolous complaints to vex, harass, and embarrass him.
At a hearing in 2021, Green’s counsel Bryan Schrempf of Alton stated Bagsby’s reliance on alienation of affection showed complete lack of diligence.
Kolker granted sanctions, stating the case clearly had no merit and a simple search at the beginning would have shown it shouldn’t have been filed.
He set a hearing on the amount, and Schrempf filed affidavits attesting to 178.4 hours of work and $72,349.64 in fees, costs, and expenses.
David Cates of Swansea, who also represented Green, reported 17 hours of work and $3,807.50 in fees.
At a hearing, Kolker said, “When first sanction orders historically go out in our courthouse the first one isn’t over 90 thousand dollars. That’s not how we do things. It’s generally under five thousand.”
He said if the same thing happened again, “then we move up historically to increase maybe what an order may be for sanctions.”
He found $3,500 in fees reasonable.
Green moved for reconsideration and Kolker denied it at a hearing.
“I don’t think Mr. Bagsby is ever going to do something like this again,” Kolker said.
Fifth District judges John Barberis, Mark Boie, and Randy Moore found his approach too soft.
“Plaintiff’s pleading was not warranted by existing law,” Barberis wrote.
He found he couldn’t conclude the award was compatible with preventing false and frivolous suits.
“To rule otherwise in the instant case would deny defendant the ability to recover fees for those incurred in pursuing motions, even if unsuccessful, and in prosecuting a motion for sanctions for sanctionable conduct,” he wrote.