Disagreeing with two of her Illinois Appellate Court colleagues who concluded that the collateral source rule didn’t block a defendant from claiming a setoff for a $400,000 payment from a co-defendant’s insurance company — in a combined breach of contract, mechanics lien case where (1) Süd Family Limited Partnership hired Otto Baum Co. for grading work on five lots in Peoria (2) Methodist Services Inc. purchased Lots 2 and 5 from Süd (3) Otto Baum sued to foreclose on its mechanics liens and also scored breach of contract judgments against Süd in 2009 and (4) Methodist’s title insurer, Attorney Title Guaranty, or ATG, paid $400,000 to Otto Baum for a release of the liens on Lots 2 and 5 — Justice Mary McDade dissented from the 3rd District’s decision that (a) ATG wasn’t a collateral source and (b) Süd was entitled to a release of judgment under Section 12–183 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
By Steven P. Garmisa