Estate of Johnson by Castle v. Village of Libertyville
| Decision Date | 18 May 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-1851,86-1851 |
| Citation | 819 F.2d 174 |
| Parties | ESTATE OF Kathleen Ann JOHNSON, Deceased, by Charles CASTLE and Vivian Castle, Special Administrators, and Charles Castle and Vivian Castle, Individually, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. VILLAGE OF LIBERTYVILLE, and Sandra J. Pierce, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Margaret Basch, Paul W. Grauer & Assoc., Schaumburg, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Matthew A. Hurd, Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellees.
Before WOOD and COFFEY, Circuit Judges, and GRANT, Senior District Judge. *
Under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, Charles and Vivian Castle brought suit against the Village of Libertyville and one of its police officers, Sandra J. Pierce, to recover damages related to the death of their daughter Kathleen. The district court granted the defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure of the complaint to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Castles now appeal.
In October 1983, Kathleen Johnson, daughter of the Castles, died after her car collided with a car driven by officer Pierce. Kathleen had been married to her husband, Michael Johnson, for only ten days. On December 22, 1983, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Probate Division, appointed the surviving husband as Administrator of Kathleen's estate. As Administrator, on January 13, 1984, Michael brought suit for wrongful death in the Circuit Court of Lake County, Illinois against the Village, officer Pierce, and others. The Castles moved to intervene, alleging that Michael was not adequately protecting their interests in the circuit court action. The motion was denied, and upon a motion to reconsider, denied again. That decision has been appealed to the Appellate Court of Illinois.
Meanwhile, Michael filed amended complaints in the state court, adding the Castles as named claimants in various counts of the wrongful death suit. The Fourth Amended Complaint is presently before the state circuit court. But despite this activity in the Lake County court, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Probate Division, in October 1985 appointed the Castles as Special Administrators of Kathleen's estate. This appointment precipitated three more lawsuits: The Castles brought an action individually and on behalf of the estate in the Circuit Court of Cook County for loss of society, medical and funeral expenses and property damage; the Castles also brought a case on the same theory of recovery before the Circuit Court of Lake County; and, further, the Castles brought this Sec. 1983 suit in federal district court for the violation of Kathleen's civil rights. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss, holding that the Castles' complaint stated no basis for relief, neither in an individual capacity nor in a capacity as administrators of Kathleen's estate.
On this appeal the Castles argue it was improper for the federal district court to declare void the state court appointment of special administrators. Alternatively, the Castles contend they have standing to sue in an individual capacity for the recovery of damages resulting from the death of their child. We are aware that for purposes of a motion to dismiss, the court shall accept all allegations in the complaint as true, and the motion must be denied if relief would be available under any set of facts consistent with the allegations. Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 2232, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984). But because neither of the Castles' arguments is persuasive, as we will explain, we affirm the decision of the district court to dismiss the complaint.
The Castles contend "our system of federalism" precludes the federal district court from ruling that the state circuit court's appointment of special administrators was void. In doing so, the Castles argue, the district court not only acted improperly as an "appellate" court to the circuit court but also committed the error of misapplying Illinois law. The Castles concede that two administrators cannot co-exist for one estate; they contend, however, that special administrators are appointed on a limited basis to represent the estate when the administrator may have a conflict of interest, and they suggest a conflict exists here. They argue that under Illinois wrongful death law, Ill.Ann.Stat ch. 70, para. 2, any recovery is to be distributed among the surviving spouse (i.e., Michael) and next-of-kin (the Castles), and therefore, it would be in Michael's best interest "to minimize the losses to the decedent's parents." Reply Br. at 4. The Castles offer the example of Michael's Lake County suit, which demands damages for his loss of consortium but fails to demand damages for the Castles' loss of society. In short, the Castles contend that their appointment as special administrators was proper because Michael failed to represent their interests in recovering losses arising from their daughter's wrongful death.
We reject the argument that the Castles' purported status as special administrators conferred standing to bring this Sec. 1983 suit. The Castles point out accurately that the federal district court does not sit in "review" of the courts of the sovereign state of Illinois; however, the fact of such an observation neither precludes the district court from applying the relevant law of Illinois as that law is implicated by a dispute in a federal tribunal, nor bars the district court from ruling as it has done here. The district court's dismissal of the Castles' Sec. 1983 suit is not tantamount to reversing the state circuit court; neither party has "appealed" the circuit court's decision to appoint the Castles as special administrators. Rather, in considering the Castles' Sec. 1983 suit, the district court merely determined that under Illinois law the second grant of administration was void and, therefore, the Castles had no standing as special administrators to seek damages under Sec. 1983.
Our decision in Hillyard v. National Dairy Products Corporation, 301 F.2d 277 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 371 U.S. 841, 83 S.Ct. 70, 9 L.Ed.2d 77 (1962), accurately presented the law of Illinois on the subject of special administrators. We found in Hillyard that under Illinois law the appointment of a special administrator without prior revocation of the letters of a duly appointed executor is void. Our decision was grounded in the firm precedent that "two separate and valid grants of letters of administration cannot exist at the same time in the same court," Hutton v. Porrovecchio, 188 Ill.App. 81, 86 (1914), and "[a]n order appointing a special administrator to collect without revoking the letters of a duly qualified and acting executor is void." Id. at 87. Revocation of letters, moreover, is no trifling matter; where there is no ground for revocation in a statute, the revocation is void and the order appointing an administrator de bonis non is also void. Munroe v. People, 102 Ill. 406 (1882). Letters may be revoked for obvious reasons--the death or incompetency of the representative--and the Illinois statute enumerates an exhaustive list of other reasons for revocation, such as mismanaging the estate or acting under letters secured by false pretenses. Ill.Ann.Stat. ch. 110 1/2, para. 23-2(a). However, the revocation statute is not at issue here because nobody sought revocation of the letters naming Michael Johnson administrator of Kathleen's estate. And as surviving spouse of Kathleen, Michael is first in line under the statutory preference for letters of administration. Ill.Ann.Stat. ch. 110 1/2, para. 9-3. Thus, this leaves only the possibility that a special administrator is required because Michael has a conflict interfering with his ability to manage the affairs of Kathleen's estate.
But no such conflict exists. As Administrator, Michael Johnson brought the wrongful death action as the Illinois Wrongful Death Act requires the action to be brought, by and in the name of the personal representative of the deceased person within two years after death. Ill.Ann.Stat. ch. 70, para. 2. The cause of action is for the benefit of the deceased's estate, compensating the surviving spouse and next-of-kin for the pecuniary losses due to the decedent's death. A surviving spouse, for instance, may seek damages for loss of consortium, Countryman v. County of Winnebago, 135 Ill.App.3d 384, 90 Ill.Dec. 344, 481 N.E.2d 1255 (1985), and the parents might, in some cases, have a claim for loss of society. Compare Bullard v. Barnes, 112...
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