Ahern v. Knecht

• Decision Date: 07 September 1990
• Docket Number: No. 2-89-1168,2-89-1168
• Citation: 150 Ill.Dec. 660,202 Ill.App.3d 709,563 N.E.2d 787
• Parties: , 150 Ill.Dec. 660 Joseph AHERN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James M. KNECHT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 787

563 N.E.2d 787

202 Ill.App.3d 709, 150 Ill.Dec. 660

Joseph AHERN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James M. KNECHT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 2-89-1168.

Appellate Court of Illinois Second District.

Sept. 7, 1990.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 24, 1990.

Nathanson & Wray, Richard K. Wray, Robin R. LaFollette, Keck, Mahin & Cate, Chicago, for James M. Knecht.

No appearance for Joseph Ahern.

Neil F. Hartigan, Atty. Gen., Chicago, Colleen McLaughlin, DuPage Co. Asst. State's Atty., Wheaton, Gregory Condon, Office of the Atty. Gen., for the People.

Justice WOODWARD delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Joseph Ahern, brought a small claims action to recover monies paid to defendant, James M. Knecht, for the repair of plaintiff's central air-conditioning unit. Plaintiff had paid $762 to defendant and complained that the unit was not repaired as requested, that defendant's charges were outrageously exhorbitant, and that some services were neither requested nor necessary where another company had thoroughly serviced the unit the month before and another company was able to repair it for $72 the day after defendant had worked on the unit. Following a bench trial in which the parties appeared pro se, the trial court found that defendant should have charged $150 for his work, and after the court deducted $72, the amount paid to the subsequent repairman, defendant was allowed a total of $78 for his work. The trial court then entered judgment for plaintiff in the amount of $684.

Defendant appeals, contending that the trial court had no basis to rescind or set aside the terms of the contract, whether on the basis of common-law or statutory fraud, unconscionability, or duress. The Attorney General has been permitted to file a brief amicus curiae supporting the position of plaintiff, who has filed his brief pro se. We believe that the record supports the judgment of the circuit court, and we, therefore, affirm.

The facts of this case have been gleaned from the limited stipulated statement of facts of the trial proceeding. At trial plaintiff, Joseph Ahern, testified in his own behalf. Plaintiff began by describing another pending case in the chancery division of the trial court. He stated that defendant, James Knecht, was being sued by the Attorney General of the State of Illinois on behalf of about 100 people for violating the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (Consumer Fraud Act) (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 121 1/2, par. 261 et seq.).

Plaintiff testified that Air Tite Temperature Engineering had performed service on the central air-conditioning unit on April 19, 1989. This included a new blower assembly and motor. Air Tite Engineering also performed service on the outside condensing unit on May 30, 1989. The service included washing out the condensing coils and levelling the unit.

Plaintiff testified that, on June 23, 1989, he was not home; the unit was running but not cooling properly. Mrs. Ahern called defendant, James Knecht, for service. Plaintiff complained that defendant and his helper evidently spent hours repeating the same work that was performed by Air Tite on April 19 and May 30, but failed to repair the cooling problem for which his services had been requested. Worse yet, the unit was not running at all when defendant left, and for his services he charged $762, a sum which plaintiff considered outrageously exorbitant. The next day, on June 24, Energy Exchange repaired the unit for $72, and it has functioned well since.

The trial court asked Celeste Ahern to recount the events of June 23 and 24. Mrs. Ahern testified that there was a heat wave on June 23. She awoke in the morning to find the house temperature quite warm even though the air-conditioning unit had been running all night. Her husband was not home, and she did not know what company he normally used to service the unit. So she consulted the "Yellow Pages" and picked defendant because his advertisement stressed "honesty."

Mrs. Ahern said that defendant arrived about 8:30 a.m. with a helper. They went to the basement and spent approximately 30 minutes down there. At 9 a.m., Mrs. Ahern went outside to find out when the unit would be repaired, since she had to leave for a doctor's appointment at 10:30 a.m. Defendant gave Mrs. Ahern a price of $643 to repair the unit. Mrs. Ahern testified that she was unfamiliar with these mechanical procedures, but expressed shock at the price, particularly the $210 charge for levelling the unit. She presumed this was to have included a new concrete pad. She asked defendant to bill her, but he refused to do so and demanded to be paid before she left, despite the fact that the unit had still not been repaired. She testified that she felt intimidated and agreed to pay.

Mrs. Ahern testified that she returned with her checkbook 20 minutes later to discover that the slab had been levelled by shovelling some gravel from her patio under it. She expressed amazement to defendant that the $210 job had been performed so quickly. She testified that defendant then announced that he had forgotten to add $119 to his estimate to provide freon. She gave him a check for $762.

Mrs. Ahern testified that when she returned at 1 p.m., the unit was not running. Defendant left a note on his invoice which stated, "Weak compressor overload showed up." Mrs. Ahern immediately called the bank to stop payment on the check, but discovered that defendant had cashed it at 12:15 p.m. After repeated calls to defendant, he returned the call at 9 a.m. the next day. He explained that the compressor "died," and he would not replace it or refund the charges; he finally hung up on her.

Mrs. Ahern testified that the same day, June 24, Energy Exchange, Inc., serviced the unit and repaired it. Its invoice indicated that the run and start wires had been switched at the compressor. Freon was also added. Energy Exchange's total charge was $72, and the unit has cooled properly ever since.

Defendant, James Knecht, testified that, on June 23, 1989, he responded to a call from Mrs. Ahern. Defendant and his helper, Dale Jaffke, arrived at the Ahern home at 8:36 a.m Defendant testified that he followed a standard procedure in diagnosing and repairing central air-conditioning units. That procedure begins with an audit of the cooling system, including such items as the blower, which is generally located on the furnace, the thermostat, the air filters, the condensate drain, the electrical connections, and the coolant system.

As reflected on his invoice, defendant checked and oiled the furnace blower. He checked the air cleaner; he cleared out the condensate drain line; and he applied a coupler to that drain line for use in future service. He checked the outside unit, which was found to be working mechanically, but not cooling. In checking the outside unit, defendant observed that the slab on which the condenser unit was sitting was not level and had apparently settled to the point that the unit was suspended from the freon or coolant line. The result was that the freon line had developed a leak.

At that point, as reflected in the invoice, defendant told Mrs. Ahern of his findings and gave her a quotation for the work which he felt was necessary to be done. As he told Mrs. Ahern, and as reflected on the invoice, the service call or travel charge of $69 combined with the $85 charge for diagnosing problems in the system totalled $154. Mrs. Ahern was told that Knecht Service would raise and level the condenser and slab for $210, that it would wet wash the condenser and coils for $138, check, clean, and tighten all electrical connections for $69, leak check eight service connections with a leak detection instrument, and stop the obvious leak at the condenser with a suction nut and seal cap for $72. Knecht Service would also install its instruments for monitoring coolant and add all required freon to bring the unit back up to service for $119. The total amount quoted to Mrs. Ahern was $762.

Mrs. Ahern told defendant that she needed to leave the house to attend to other business. Defendant told her that payment was required at the time the work was done. Mrs. Ahern agreed to prepare a check in the amount of $762, which she left with defendant.

Defendant and Jaffke proceeded to raise and level the concrete slab and condenser by adding several inches of landscaping gravel under the slab, sufficient to raise it so that pressure was relieved from the coolant line. Jaffke carried the gravel while defendant raised the slab and spread the gravel. Defendant and Jaffke disassembled the condenser and coils and proceeded to wet wash them using equipment from their service truck. All of the outdoor electrical connections were cleaned, tightened, and checked for continuity. The leak check of all service connections was accomplished using the leak detection equipment from the service truck.

Defendant and Jaffke then installed the instruments used in adding freon to the system and began adding freon. While the freon was being added, the compressor cut out and stopped working. According to defendant, it was not possible to complete the addition of freon once the compressor had stopped. Defendant attempted to determine the source of the failure, but he was unsuccessful in doing so. He left the invoice for Mrs. Ahern with the notation that an apparent compressor overload had occurred and that the compressor should be checked to see if it was under warranty.

Defendant subsequently learned from plaintiff that the problem with the compressor was that the "run" and "start" wires were attached to each other's terminals at the compressor. Defendant testified that those wires could have been improperly attached when he arrived so that he did not notice them, or they may have been attached in error when he completed the checking, cleaning, and tightening all of the electrical connections.

Defendant also testified that he had previously offered to return $72 to...