Richard R. Boykin
Gas stations in Chicago can’t get liquor licenses, but one station owner thought he had a loophole: A separate convenience store attached to, but separate from, his fuel business.
After two courts shut down the liquor store at the city’s request, the gas station owner filed a legal-malpractice claim against the attorney who, he said, guaranteed his separate business would work.
The 1st District Appellate Court has affirmed the dismissal of that claim against the attorney, who is also a candidate running unopposed in the November election for a Cook County Board seat.
The state appeals court found that the plaintiff, gas station owner Jamaal Bunni, waited too long to file his complaint against Richard R. Boykin and his firm, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, after a city commission initially rejected his application for a liquor license.
In an 11-page unpublished order written by Justice Bertina E. Lampkin, the panel found that Bunni’s two-year window to file a legal-malpractice claim against Boykin began in 2008 when Bunni fired Boykin and hired a new attorney — not a few years later at the conclusion of the legal battle for a liquor license.
The facts and allegations of the case, presented in the appeals court ruling, date back to 2007 when an associate of then-29th Ward Ald. Isaac Carothers referred Bunni to Boykin for legal work to obtain a liquor license and zoning variance for Bunni’s gas station at 6363 W. Fullerton Ave.
In the complaint first filed in Cook County Circuit Court in August 2011, Bunni alleged a Carothers business representative, Luis Villanueva, visited the gas station and told Bunni he could earn more money if he operated a liquor store on the property.
Villanueva allegedly told Bunni that Carothers would be willing to help get a license approved in exchange for donations to Carothers, according to the appellate court ruling.
Though a city ordinance prohibits gas stations from getting liquor licenses, Carothers, through Villanueva, allegedly assured Bunni that he could get one by modifying his building and getting a zoning ordinance variance.
In the complaint, Bunni alleged that Carothers and Villanueva referred Bunni to Boykin. At a November 2007 meeting, Boykin told Bunni he would be able to get both a package liquor license and a zoning variance within 45 to 90 days, the complaint alleged.
Boykin instructed Bunni to construct a new wall in the building, create a separate legal entity for the store and obtain a second lease for the newly created portion of the building, the complaint alleged.
Boykin charged Bunni $18,000 for his services. In addition, Bunni alleged that Boykin required him to purchase a $2,300 ticket to a December fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007.
Records from the Federal Election Commission list a $2,300 donation from Bunni to Clinton’s campaign from that month, but Boykin told the court that he did not require Bunni to make the donation.
Between November and February 2008, Bunni allegedly spent more than $180,000 in renovations and fees before Boykin prepared the liquor license application.
The city liquor commission denied Bunni’s application in August 2008 because of the presence of the gas station.
Boykin offered to appeal the decision to a city appellate commission, but Bunni fired him and hired a new attorney. Represented by the late Michael E. Lavelle Sr., Bunni won on appeal and got a liquor license in February 2009.
After Bunni got his license, the city took the case to court. Circuit Judge Sophia H. Hall stripped the liquor license by overturning the city appeals commission in December 2009.
After losing an appeal on the liquor license in the 1st District Appellate Court in 2011, Bunni filed his original complaint against Boykin, Carothers and Villanueva, alleging breach of contract, detrimental reliance, legal malpractice and civil conspiracy. He argued Boykin knew or should have known a gas station could not obtain a liquor license when he promised his services.
Bunni voluntarily dropped all but the legal-malpractice charges, and in September, Associate Judge Thomas R. Mulroy Jr. granted summary judgment in favor of Boykin without providing a basis for the decision.
On appeal, Bunni argued he filed his claim within the two-year statute of limitations because he did not have any actual damages until the appellate court made its final decision in 2011.
But the appellate court said the injury took place much earlier when Bunni decided he needed a new attorney to handle the case.
“Any injury proximately caused by defendants accrued, at a minimum, when plaintiff hired Lavelle,” Lampkin wrote. “Boykin’s failure to make good on his guarantee and plaintiff’s admitted belief that Boykin would be unsuccessful on appeal led plaintiff to hire Lavelle.”
As a result, the court found Bunni incurred the injury in October 2008 and sustained a loss only of the $1,500 in legal costs he paid Lavelle.
While Bunni had a liquor license for 10 months, it came as a result of Lavelle’s efforts, the court held. That result didn’t reset the statute-of-limitations clock on Boykin’s work, Lampkin wrote.
“Therefore, where Boykin proximately caused plaintiff damages in the form of additional legal expenses as a result of Boykin’s alleged breach of duty, plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim remained intact,” Lampkin wrote.
The court affirmed the trial court’s ruling in its order, issued March 31. Justices Mary K. Rochford and Jesse G. Reyes concurred in the order.
Bunni was represented by John Thomas Moran Jr., owner of Moran Law Group, and former Moran Law Group lawyer Matthew T. Layman, now with Daley, Mohan, Groble P.C.
Moran said the case law is particularly unusual because his client temporarily got his liquor license before ultimately losing it, making it hard to know what damages had occurred while the case was still in the courts.
“If you win your license in front of the liquor appeals board, you don’t know if you have a lawsuit for malpractice at this point,” Moran said.
Boykin and Barnes & Thornburg were represented by Stephen Novack, Timothy J. Miller and Elizabeth C. Wolicki of Novack and Macey LLP.
Novack said his clients are pleased with the court’s findings on the issue of the statute of limitations and hope it brings and end to the case.
In last month’s Democratic primary election, Boykin received about 30 percent of the vote to win a five-way Cook County Board commissioner race that also included Jenner & Block LLP associate Blake P. Sercye and Carothers.
The case is Jamaal Bunni v. Richard Boykin, et al., 2014 IL App (1st) 133137-U.