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Walker v. Lewis9/20/2004
UNPUBLISHED
Plaintiff-appellant, Andre L. Walker, brought a negligence action for personal injuries he sustained after being struck by an automobile driven by defendant-appellee, William J. Lewis. The matter was submitted to mandatory arbitration under Supreme Court Rule 86(b). 155 Ill. 2d R. 86(b). Defendant did not appear at the arbitration hearing although Walker requested defendant's presence pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 237, which governs compelling the appearance of witnesses at arbitration hearings. See 166 Ill. 2d Rs. 237, 90(g). Defense counsel, however, appeared and participated. An arbitration award was entered in favor of Walker in the amount of $3,000. Because the arbitration award satisfied neither party, the parties agreed that defendant would file a timely rejection of the award, which defendant did 16 days after the arbitration award was filed. Thereafter, the trial court, sua sponte, ordered the parties to brief the issue of whether defendant should be debarred from rejecting the arbitration award because of his absence at the arbitration hearing. Each party filed written memoranda supporting defendant's right to reject but the trial court, sua sponte and over the objection of both parties, entered its own order debarring defendant from rejecting the award.
Walker then filed a motion to reconsider, which was denied. He also presented a motion to adjudicate and to reduce a worker's compensation lien and a physician's lien that had been asserted against him. The trial court reduced the physician's lien, but refused to reduce the worker's compensation lien.
Walker contends on appeal that the trial court erred when it debarred defendant from rejecting the award because there was no evidence supporting the sanction, there was no petition for sanctions before the court, the sanction was too severe, and the court should not have prohibited Walker from rejecting the award. He also claims that the trial court erred when it declined to reduce the worker's compensation lien.
On April 28, 2003, the trial court, sua sponte, ordered the parties to file written memoranda on the issue of whether defendant should be debarred from rejecting the award because defendant did not appear at the arbitration hearing. In a response to the trial court's order, defendant admitted that he was present by defense counsel only but claimed that he meaningfully participated in the arbitration hearing because defense counsel made an opening statement, cross-examined Walker, and gave a closing argument. He also stated that Walker was not prejudiced by the defendant's absence.
In his reply to the trial court's briefing order, Walker claimed that he too was dissatisfied with the arbitration award and stood ready to reject it himself. He explained that after settlement negotiations failed, it was agreed by both parties that defendant would reject the award. Walker further requested that the court decline to bar defendant from rejecting the award.
At a hearing May 29, 2003, Walker informed the trial court that he expressly waived any sanction that might issue as a result of defendant's failure to appear at the arbitration hearing. The record reveals that this waiver was memorialized in a letter from Walker's counsel to defense counsel dated April 28, 2003. After the hearing on May 29, 2003, over the objection of both parties, the trial court entered an order debarring defendant from rejecting the award of the arbitrators for failing to appear at the arbitration hearing pursuant to Walker's Rule 237 request. It did so on the ground that defendant's failure to appear at the arbitration violated Supreme Court Rule 91(b), which requires good-faith participation
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