(DOWNLOAD) "Country Mutual Ins. Co. v. Knight" by Supreme Court of Illinois ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Country Mutual Ins. Co. v. Knight
- Author : Supreme Court of Illinois
- Release Date : January 24, 1968
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 71 KB
Description
In 1961, the Illinois General Assembly enacted the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1967, chap.
141, par. 101 et seq.). This Act is substantially the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act as drafted by the National
Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and recommended for enactment to all of the States in 1955. (Vol. 9A, Uniform
Laws Annotated, p. 416.) The Illinois Act defines abandoned property (sections 2-9) and requires that its holder report (section
11) and pay or deliver it to the State Director of Financial Institutions (section 13). It provides for notice to the owner
(section 12) and relieves the person delivering the property from any liability to the owner (section 14). In addition, section
16 provides: "The expiration of any period of time specified by statute or court order, during which an action or proceeding
may be commenced or enforced to obtain payment of a claim for money or recovery of property, shall not prevent the money
or property from being presumed abandoned property, nor affect any duty to file a report required by this Act or to pay or
deliver abandoned property to the Director." Pursuant to the provision of the Act, the Director made demand upon the original plaintiffs herein, Country Mutual Insurance
Company, State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Company and State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, to file a report listing all claims
incurred after August 17, 1931, and prior to December 31, 1964, which were outstanding and unpaid for more than 15 years.
These claims were evidenced by checks issued during the above period which had remained outstanding and unpaid. All claims
on these checks were barred by the statute of limitations as of August 17, 1961, the effective date of the Act. The plaintiffs
filed a petition for declaratory judgment in the circuit court of Sangamon County, requesting that section 16 of the Act be
construed to operate prospectively only or, in the alternative, be declared unconstitutional, as to claims on which the statute
of limitations had run as of the effective date of the Act. The trial court ruled that section 16 did not apply to claims
on which recovery was barred as of August 17, 1961, and issued a permanent injunction restraining the Director from collecting
the funds represented by the checks in question. Subsequently, other suits were filed by corporations similarly situated as
the original plaintiffs and each of these cases were disposed of on the basis of the holding in the original suit. The Director
appealed from the judgment orders in all of these cases, and the cases have been consolidated in this court for purposes of
filing briefs and oral argument.