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Thomas v. Sklodowski

Case Date: 03/23/1999
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-98-1763

Thomas v. Sklodowski, No. 1-98-1763

1st District, MARCH 23, 1999

SECOND DIVISION

ALFRED THOMAS,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

ROBERT SKLODOWSKI; SKLODOWSKI AND FRANKLIN; and SKLODOWSKI, FRANKLIN, PUCHALSKI AND REIMER,

Defendants-Appellees.

 Appeal from the Circuit Courtof Cook County

No. 94 L 1134

The Honorable Sophia Hall, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE COUSINS delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Alfred Thomas, brought a legal malpractice suit alleging that the negligence of his attorney in not giving him notice of withdrawal led to a default judgment against him in a federal case. The defendants argued that they had exercised reasonable efforts in trying to reach the plaintiff and that the federal court had already decided that issue in their favor by granting the attorney leave to withdraw. Furthermore, they contended, the plaintiff's own negligence was the sole proximate cause of the default judgment. The defendants moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted.

The plaintiff now appeals, contending that: (1) there were genuine issues of material fact, which should have ruled out summary judgment; (2) the adverse rulings of the federal circuit court did not conclusively decide the issue of whether the defendants made reasonable efforts to contact the plaintiff; and (3) there was insufficient evidence for the court to conclude that the plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the default.

BACKGROUND

In 1989, Stanley Scott was shot and killed by four Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) security guards. One of those guards was Alfred Thomas, the plaintiff in this action. The estate of Mr. Scott sued the security guards and their employer, Security Enforcement Services, Inc. (SES), as well as the CHA, for violation of Mr. Scott's civil rights under color of law. 42 U.S.C.A.