News & Events

• Partners Jim DeAno & Laura Scarry are pleased to announce the celebration of the firm's one year anniversary as of June 1, 2007.

Recent Success

1. On August 25, 2011, a federal court in Austin v. Park Forest et al., Case No. 10 C 7355,granted motions to dismiss filed by DeAno & Scarry on behalf of several members of the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force responsible for investigating a shooting that occurred in Park Forest, Illinois on January 24, 2007. The plaintiff, who was arrested and charged as a result of the investigation, remained in Cook County Jail until he was released on November 19, 2009 following the Cook County State's Attorney's decision to drop the charges. Howard P. Levine led the team in the successful resolution of the lawsuit. DeAno & Scarry represented police officers from Park Forest, East Hazel Crest, Olympia Fields, Tinley Park, Flossmoor and Homewood.
2. DeAno & Scarry recently successfully defended a multinational transportation, logistics and supply chain management company in the 18th Judicial Circuit Court of DuPage County. On December 29, 2010, the firm obtained a dismissal of the complaint filed against the international client in a breach of contract action involving complex corporate agency issues involving damages in excess of $1 million dollars. The defense was led by James L. DeAno.
3. On October 13, 2010, DeAno & Scarry successfully represented its municipal client in an arbitration hearing in McKay v. Tinley Park. In this slip and fall case, the panel of arbitrators found in favor of the municipality where the plaintiff fell on the Metra train platform.
4. On March 24, 2010, DeAno & Scarry obtained summary judgment in favor of its municipal client in Sherman v. Village of Buffalo Grove, Case No. 07 L 10201. The Cook County Circuit Court granted the village's summary judgment motion drafted by Howard P. Levine in a case where the plaintiffs alleged the village's storm sewer system was unable to drain rainwater adequately to prevent flooding in the month of October 2006. The court found that the village did not proximately cause the damage and that the damage was due to an act of God.
5. Two weeks before trial was set to begin on January 5, 2010, a police officer who was assigned as an undercover agent for Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group retained DeAno & Scarry to represent him at trial in federal court. After obtaining the file and learning the facts of the four-year-old case in less than two weeks, Laura L. Scarry was able to convince the plaintiffs to voluntarily dismiss her client on the morning of trial in Herman v. County of Lake, Illinois et al., Case No. 06 C 6888. The trial continued against the remaining police defendants unfortunately resulting in a verdict against the remaining defendants including punitive damages awards against two of the individually-named officers.
6. October 8, 2009, James L. DeAno drafted an amicus curiae brief before the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel in Keener v. City of Herrin, Case No. 107658. Tragically, 18-year-old Chelsea Keener was hit by a car after she walked from the Herrin Police Department after being released from police custody after she was arrested for underage drinking. At the time she had a BAC of 0.18. At issue was whether the City was immune under Section 4-107 of the Illinois Tort Immunity Act which grants absolute immunity to a municipality for releasing a person in custody. The trial court granted the City's motion to dismiss and the plaintiff appealed. The Supreme Court found that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case because the plaintiff did not timely file the appeal.
7. On March 19, 2009, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendants, Cook County Sheriff Michael F. Sheahan and Beretta U.S.A. Corporation in Adames v. Sheahan et al., Case Nos. 105789 and 105851 consolidated. In a tragic case involving the accidental shooting of a young boy by his 13-year-old friend who was playing with a service weapon belonging to his father who was a correctional officer for Cook County, James L. DeAno drafted another amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Illinois Municipal League, the Chiefs of Police of the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency and the South Suburban Chiefs of Police. The Supreme Court found that the corrections officer was not acting in the scope of his employment when storing his gun at home when the shooting occurred and, as such, no liability could be imposed on the municipal defendant.
8. James L. DeAno successfully drafted a third amicus curiae brief in 2009 on behalf of the Chiefs of Police of the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency and the South Suburban Chiefs of Police in support of the municipal defendants in a case before the Illinois Supreme Court in Lacey v. City of Palatine, Case Nos. 106353 and 106359 consolidated. The cases resulted from the murder of Lacey and her mother in Lacey's Glenview home in December 2004. The Lacey family sued the Village of Glenview and the Village of Palatine as well as their officers, charging that the officers promised to protect Lacey from her former boyfriend after learning of his alleged plot to kill her. The Illinois Supreme Court on February20, 2009 ruled that the Domestic Violence Act did not impose a duty on the officers to protect her and her mother.
9. On August 22, 2008, DeAno & Scarry obtained a dismissal of a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a prisoner in Utley v. Trost, Case No. 07 C 5646. The pro se plaintiff alleged that the officer gave false information in order to obtain a warrant for an eavesdropping device which was used to overhear a drug transaction involving the plaintiff which ultimately led to his criminal conviction.
10. DeAno & Scarry obtained summary judgment in favor of a police detective and his municipal employer in Miller v. Karner et al., Case no. 07 C 3332. The detective arrested and charged the plaintiff with theft of services of a local hospital and providing false billing information in an attempt to avoid payment of services. Plaintiff claimed that the detective had no probable cause to arrest her and was responsible for her malicious prosecution. The district court agreed and granted the police defendants' motion for summary judgment on May 29, 2008.
11. James L. DeAno successfully represented a police officer and his municipal employer in an appeal before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In Purtell v. Mason et al., Case No. 06-3176, the plaintiffs alleged that their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated after the officer arrested the resident after he refused to take down gravestone markers used as Halloween decorations that contained provocative and abusive language about the plaintiffs' neighbors. The appellate court decided in favor of Mr. DeAno's clients on May 14, 2008.
12. On February 29, 2008, the First District Court of Appeals affirmed a Cook County Circuit Court's dismissal of Nicor Gas Co.'s lawsuit against one of DeAno & Scarry's municipal clients in Nicor Gas Co. v. Village of Wilmette, Case No. 1-07-1041. The lawsuit resulted from an underground water main break in January 2003 which forced thousands of tons of water into a gas main. Nicor alleged its property was damaged and customers in Wilmette and Evanston suffered natural gas outages within a 10-mile radius of the break. Howard P. Levine and James L. DeAno successfully defended the lawsuit alleging negligence, res ipsa loquitur, breach of contract and intentional trespass.