Ruling it does not have jurisdiction to intervene, the Appellate Court of Illinois has refused to review a lawsuit filed against a collection agency by the husband of a woman who committed suicide after the agency attempted to enforce a judgment against the woman that had been vacated.
A jury had awarded the husband $16 million, but the defendant was able to successfully file a motion to have the judgment vacated; a decision that the husband appealed to the state appellate court.
A copy of the ruling in Stoller v. Premier Capital, LLC can be accessed by clicking here.
The husband accused the collection agency, as well as a pair of law firms, of causing his wife’s suicide.
There are a number of legal reasons that the appellate court cited for not hearing the appeal. The legal wrangling appears to have something to do with confusion over an order of default that was entered against the defendant in 2010, as well as another motion to rescind the court’s judgment. The defendant argued that neither of the appealed orders were final judgments and thus, could not be ruled on by the appellate court.
Because neither order terminated the litigation or resolved the plaintiff’s claims, the appellate court had no grounds to consider the case, it said.
