Woidtke v. St. Clair County, Illinois

• Decision Date: 07 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-4223.,02-4223.
• Citation: 335 F.3d 558
• Parties: Rodney WOIDTKE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS, St. Clair County Public Defender's Office, Brian K. Trentman, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

335 F.3d 558

Rodney WOIDTKE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS, St. Clair County Public Defender's Office, Brian K. Trentman, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 02-4223.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 23, 2003.

Decided July 7, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael A. Gross (argued), St. Louis, MO, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Garrett P. Hoerner, Becker, Paulson & Hoerner, Michael J. Nester, Donovan, Rose, Nester & Szewczyk, Belleville, IL, Joseph B. McDonnell (argued), Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, Swansea, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

On March 29, 2002, Rodney Woidtke, invoking the diversity jurisdiction of the district court, see 28 U.S.C. § 1332, filed a three-count complaint against St. Clair County and public defenders Brian Trentman and Vincent Lopinot.¹ In Count I, Mr. Woidtke alleged that Attorney Trentman, and his supervisor, Attorney Lopinot, had been negligent in their representation of Mr. Woidtke in a 1989 criminal proceeding that resulted in his conviction. Mr. Woidtke further alleged that the attorneys' negligent representation of him continued throughout his post-conviction proceedings until their withdrawal in 1998. In Count II, Mr. Woidtke, alleging that the attorneys' acts were willful and wanton, sought punitive damages. Finally, in Count III, Mr. Woidtke alleged that St. Clair County was liable for the wrongful acts of Trentman and Lopinot under 745 ILCS 10/9-102. On November 8, 2002, the district court dismissed Mr. Woidtke's complaint as time-barred under the relevant statute of limitations, 745 ILCS 10/8-101. Mr. Woidtke now seeks review of that decision in this court. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I BACKGROUND

In 1989, Attorney Brian Trentman, a St. Clair County assistant public defender, represented Rodney Woidtke in a trial for the murder of Audrey Cardenas. Vincent Lopinot was Trentman's supervising attorney. Prior to and during Mr. Woidtke's trial, Trentman also represented Dale Anderson, who later was deemed a suspect in Cardenas' murder. Mr. Woidtke submits that Trentman failed to investigate fully his claim of innocence. Had a competent investigation been conducted, Mr. Woidtke asserts, the attorney would have uncovered evidence supporting the view that Anderson, not Mr. Woidtke, had committed the murder of Cardenas. Mr. Woidtke was convicted of Cardenas' murder and sentenced to a term of forty-five years in prison.

Trentman also undertook Mr. Woidtke's representation during his state post-conviction proceedings from October 1989 until January 1998. At that point, Trentman withdrew from the case. On May 11, 2000, after Mr. Woidtke had obtained new counsel, the Appellate Court of Illinois issued a final mandate vacating his conviction and remanding the case for a new trial. Mr. Woidtke was retried for Cardenas' murder, and on March 30, 2001, he was found not guilty. At the time of his release, Mr Woidtke had been incarcerated for twelve years.

On March 29, 2002, Mr. Woidtke filed this action against the defendants, alleging that they were negligent in representing him. Specifically, Mr. Woidtke alleged that, by representing both Mr. Woidtke and Anderson, Attorney Trentman had a direct conflict of interest and that Trentman had failed to present evidence at Mr. Woidtke's trial that would have established his innocence. Mr. Woidtke also alleged that Trentman, knowing there was a conflict of interest, nevertheless continued his representation in post-conviction proceedings. Mr. Woidtke further alleged that Lopinot failed to supervise Trentman and to take steps necessary to remedy the direct conflict of interest.

The defendants moved to dismiss Mr. Woidtke's complaint as time-barred under the relevant statute of limitations, 745 ILCS 10/8-101, and statute of repose, 735 ILCS 5/13-214.3(c). Attorney Lopinot also asserted immunity under 745 ILCS 10/2-201 ("Determination of policy or exercise of discretion") and 745 ILCS 10/2-204 ("Acts or omissions of another person"). Defendant St. Clair County also contended that it could not be held liable under 745 ILCS 10/2-109 for the acts or omissions of its employees (Trentman and Lopinot) if the employees themselves were not held liable.² On November 8, 2002, the district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss Mr. Woidtke's complaint on the ground that it was barred by the statute of limitations. Under 745 ILCS 10/8-101, any action against a local entity or its employees must be commenced within one year from the date that the cause of action accrued.

In submitting their motion to dismiss, the defendants had taken the view that Mr. Woidtke's complaint was untimely because his cause of action accrued on May 11, 2000, when the Illinois Appellate Court issued its final mandate vacating his conviction. Because Mr. Woidtke did not file suit within one year of that date, his claim was barred. Mr. Woidtke, on the other hand, argued that his complaint was timely because his cause of action did not accrue until March 30, 2001, when he was found not guilty after a retrial. He contended that, because he had filed suit within one year of that date, he had complied with the statute of limitations. The district court, relying primarily upon Griffin v. Goldenhersh, 323 Ill.App.3d 398, 257 Ill.Dec. 52, 752 N.E.2d 1232 (2001), determined that Mr. Woidtke's cause of action accrued on May 11, 2000, when the state appellate court issued its final mandate "overturning Woidtke's conviction and remanding the case for a new trial if the state chose to pursue Woidtke's prosecution." R.36 at 5. The court reasoned that, as of May 11, 2000, "all of the elements of Woidtke's cause of action were present." Id.

II DISCUSSION

A.

Mr. Woidtke does not dispute that he had one year from the date when his cause of action accrued to file suit against the defendants. See 745 ILCS 10/8-101 ("No civil action may be commenced in any court against a local entity or any of its employees for any injury unless it is commenced within one year from the date that the injury was received or the cause of action accrued."). He submits, however that the district court erred when it dismissed his complaint as time-barred because his cause of action did not accrue until March 30, 2001, when he was acquitted upon retrial. The defendants, on the other hand, maintain that the district court correctly determined that Mr. Woidtke's cause of action accrued on May 11, 2000, when the Illinois Appellate Court issued its final mandate overturning his conviction.

We review de novo the district court's decision to dismiss a complaint based on a statute of limitations defense. See Perry v. Sullivan, 207 F.3d 379, 382 (7th Cir.2000). In undertaking our review, we must accept "as true all of plaintiff's factual allegations and the reasonable inferences drawn from them." Id. Because the jurisdiction of the district court was based on diversity of citizenship, our task is "to ascertain the substantive content of state law as it either has been determined by the highest court of the state or as it would be by that court if the present case were before it now." Allstate Ins. Co. v. Menards, Inc., 285 F.3d 630, 637 (7th Cir. 2002).

Under Illinois law, a cause of action for legal malpractice accrues when the client discovers, or should have discovered, the facts establishing the elements of his cause of action. See Profit Mgmt. Dev. Group v. Jacobson, Brandvik & Anderson, Ltd., 309 Ill.App.3d 289, 242 Ill.Dec. 547, 721 N.E.2d 826, 841 (1999); Kohler v. Woollen, Brown & Hawkins, 15 Ill.App.3d 455, 304 N.E.2d 677, 681 (1973). The elements of a cause of action for attorney malpractice are: (1) an attorney-client relationship; (2) a duty arising from that relationship; (3) a breach of that duty; and (4) actual damages or injury proximately caused by that breach. See Sorenson v. Law Offices of Theodore Poehlmann, 327 Ill.App.3d 706, 262 Ill.Dec. 110, 764 N.E.2d 1227, 1229 (2002); Profit Mgmt. Dev. Group, 242 Ill.Dec. 547, 721 N.E.2d at 842. In the case of a malpractice action brought against a criminal defense attorney, the plaintiff has the additional burden of proving his innocence of the crime for which the defendant represented him. See Moore v. Owens, 298 Ill.App.3d 672, 232 Ill.Dec. 616, 698 N.E.2d 707, 709 (1998) (holding that a plaintiff must prove "actual innocence" in a malpractice action against his criminal defense counsel); Kramer v. Dirksen, 296 Ill. App.3d 819, 231 Ill.Dec. 169, 695 N.E.2d 1288, 1290 (1998) (holding that a plaintiff must prove his own innocence before he may recover for his criminal defense attorney's malpractice); see also Levine v. Kling, 123 F.3d 580, 582 (7th Cir.1997) (holding that, under Illinois law, a plaintiff suing his former criminal defense counsel must prove his own innocence and that a plaintiff is precluded from doing so if the conviction has not been overturned).

The Supreme Court of Illinois has not addressed the issue of when a former criminal defendant's cause of action for legal malpractice accrues against his former counsel. "[I]n the absence of prevailing authority from the state's highest court, federal courts ought to give great weight to the holdings of the state's intermediate appellate courts and ought to deviate from those holdings only when there are persuasive indications that the highest court of the state would decide the case differently from the decision of the intermediate appellate court." Allstate, 285 F.3d at 637.

The Illinois Appellate Court has addressed the issue on two separate occasions, once in Johnson v. Halloran, 312 Ill.App.3d 695, 245 Ill.Dec. 408, 728 N.E.2d 490 (2000), aff'd on other grounds, 194 Ill.2d 493, 252 Ill.Dec. 203, 742 N.E.2d 741 (2001), and again in Griffin v. Goldenhersh, 323 Ill.App.3d 398, 257 Ill.Dec. 52, ...