Hinch Law

The Illinois Supreme Court issued an opinion today in K. Miller Construction Co. v. McGinnis , Case No. 109156, holding that a contractor who violated the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act (HRRA), 815 ILCS 513/1 et. seq , by not working under a written contract and failing to give the homeowner the consumer rights brochure required by the HRRA, still had a right to be paid for its work under both legal and equitable theories.  The First District Appellate Court had held last year that the contract was void as against public policy, but that the contractor still had a right to be paid for its work under the equitable theory of quantum meruit (literally, "as much as he has deserved"). In July the HRRA was amended to clarify that a homeowner who suffers actual damages as a result of an HRRA violation has recourse under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (CFDBPA), 815 ILCS 505/1 et. seq .  However, as previously discussed on this blog , exactly h...

If you are familiar with the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act (the HRRA), you know that the law requires home repair and remodeling contractors to carry certain minimum insurance, including the following: "...public liability and property damage insurance in the amount of $10,000 per occurrence for home repair or remodeling not in conformance with applicable State, county, or municipal codes , unless the person has a net worth of not less than $1,000,000 as determined on the basis of the person's most recent financial statement, prepared within 13 months."  (emphasis added). There is a long line of cases analyzing what is and is not an "occurrence" in the context of a contractor's commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policy.  That issue is beyond the scope of this post, but suffice it to say that it is a complicated and hotly contested area of the law, perhaps especially so in Illinois.  Throw the HRRA into the mix, and you have the...