Opinion
No. 00 C 3694
February 14, 2003
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Defendant's motion to alter or amend findings/conclusions of law is denied. We denied the summary judgment motions because we believed there were genuinely disputed material facts. We resolved those disputed facts for the reasons stated in open court on September 26, 2002, and we adhere to those determinations.
Defendant, we concluded, had a contractual obligation to convey to plaintiff the Shure property. Defendant in good faith believed that Shure would convey the property to it. Its "fault," if it can be termed that, is an apparent failure to obtain a legally enforceable right to obtain the property from Shure before it bound itself to convey the property to plaintiff. If it had done so, it would still be liable to plaintiff but it could recover that loss from Shure. We also concluded that plaintiff did not have the unfettered right to walk away from the agreement, Gianone's testimony notwithstanding.
We had hoped that the parties could settle on a damages figure, and we continue to so hope. That may require, we suggest, some recognition by plaintiff that defendant did not act with dishonorable intentions. Whether plaintiff can recover on a proposed lease is a damages issue, which has yet to be determined. This matter is set for status on February 25, 2003, at 9:15 a.m.