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Corral v. Mervis Industries10/20/2005
es the forum county is not a proper venue. According to defendant, where venue is improper in the forum county, the circuit court has no discretion and must transfer venue to a proper forum. Thus, defendant insists the proper standard of review is de novo. Plaintiff, on the other hand, asks this court to adopt a "clearly erroneous" standard of review.
There appear to be conflicting decisions in our appellate court concerning the proper standard of review on a motion to transfer based on improper venue. Home Depot, U.S.A., Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 355 Ill. App. 3d 370 (2d Dist. 2005), applied a de novo standard of review to the issue of whether statutory venue requirements had been met and then applied an abuse of discretion standard of review to the ultimate issue of venue where more than one venue is proper. Other appellate court cases have only applied a de novo standard of review to determine whether the facts of a particular case met statutory venue requirements. See Reynolds v. GMAC Financial Services, 344 Ill. App. 3d 843 (5th Dist. 2003); Boxdorfer v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., 339 Ill. App. 3d 335 (5th Dist. 2003); Reichert v. Court of Claims, 327 Ill. App. 3d 390 (5th Dist. 2002), vacated on other grounds, 203 Ill. 2d 257 (2003); Lake County Riverboat L.P. v. Illinois Gaming Board, 313 Ill. App. 3d 943, 951 (2d Dist. 2000). Still, other appellate court cases have applied an abuse of discretion standard of review. See Southern & Central Illinois Laborers' District Council v. Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, 331 Ill. App. 3d 1112 (5th Dist. 2002); Johnson v. Compost Products, Inc., 314 Ill. App. 3d 231 (2d Dist. 2000); Long v. Gray, 306 Ill. App. 3d 445 (1st Dist. 1999). To be sure, this court has not been entirely clear on expressing the standard of review to be applied on appeal from an order of the circuit court granting or denying a motion to transfer based on improper venue, and the confusion among our appellate districts concerning the proper standard of review is understandable.
Those appellate court cases applying the abuse of discretion standard of review relied on Stambaugh v. International Harvester Co., 102 Ill. 2d 250 (1984). Stambaugh applied an abuse of discretion standard of review to an appeal from the denial of a motion to transfer based on improper venue. Stambaugh, 102 Ill. 2d at 263. Stambaugh did not offer any analysis or explanation concerning the applicable standard of review, but simply cited Morrison v. Community Unit School District No. 1, 44 Ill. App. 3d 315 (1976), for the abuse of discretion standard of review. As the Reichert court aptly observed, Morrison did not involve a motion to transfer based on improper venue but, rather, a motion to transfer from a proper venue based on prejudice of the forum county's jury pool. Reichert, 327 Ill. App. 3d at 393. A motion to transfer from one proper venue to another based on potential prejudice requires the trial court to exercise discretion and merits application of the abuse of discretion standard of review.
Since Stambaugh, this court has clarified the proper deference to be accorded the trial court via applicable standards of appellate review. In People v. Coleman, this court acknowledged " he manifestly erroneous standard represents the typical appellate standard of review for findings of fact made by a trial judge." People v. Coleman, 183 Ill. 2d 366, 384-85 (1998), citing M. Davis, A Basic Guide to Standards of Judicial Review, 33 S.D. L. Rev. 469, 470-71 (1988). Accordingly, we determined that the manifestly erroneous standard of review is only appropriate when reviewing the propriety of an order of the circuit court granting or denying relief at the conclusion of the evidentiary stag
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