Illinois Appellate Lawyer Blog

Rhonda Gilley broke her ankle when she slipped on unsecured carpeting in an apartment building. She sued the landlord for negligently maintaining the property. The landlord moved for summary judgment, and prevailed. Rhonda moved for reconsideration and to file an amended complaint. Her reconsideration motion was denied, but she was allowed to file an amended pleading.

Rhonda’s amended complaint did not incorporate or refer to her first complaint. The landlord moved to dismiss the amended complaint. He won, so Rhonda appealed both the summary judgment and the dismissal.

The Second District Appellate Court ruled that the summary judgment in favor of the landlord was not properly before the court. “[T]he issue of the propriety of the trial court's grant of summary judgment is not properly before this court, for when an amendment is filed that is complete in itself and that does not refer to or adopt by reference the prior pleadings, the earlier pleadings are effectively withdrawn and cease to be a part of the record for most purposes . . . Thus, the filing of an amended pleading waives any objection to the trial court's ruling on any former complaint . . . Here, by filing an amended complaint, plaintiff was precluded from appealing the order on her original complaint, and we restrict our review to the court's dismissal of plaintiff's amended complaint.”

Get the whole case, Gilley v. Kiddel, No. 2-06-0505 (3/21/07), by clicking here.