Another appellate court case regarding residential real estate...

I've been seeing a bunch of appellate court holdings regarding residential real estate closings lately. Know your case law when you're advising clients on the various disclosures and attorney modification letters or beware...people really do sue in this area:


Breach Of Contract/ Residential Real Estate Disclosure Act / Fraud 1st Dist. Fox v. Heimann, No. 1-06-0414 & 1-06-0697. Affirmed Defendant waived any challenge to the sufficiency of the plaintiff's complaint by failing to file 2-615 motion to dismiss; which is not overcome by filing motion for summary judgment. Further, requirement in Residential Real Estate Disclosure Act to notify buyer of material defects in the property being sold is implied in contract and forms the basis for a viable cause of action for breach of contract. In addition, evidence that previous owner informed sellers of material defects in foundation, coupled with expert testimony from plaintiffs' expert, support trial court's finding in favor of plaintiff for breach of contract. Also, trial court's finding that defendants did not commit actual or consumer fraud is not against manifest weight of the evidence; because court found that defendants did not deliberately mislead the plaintiffs.