Another trip to the Appellate Court?

I had another Home Repair and Remodeling Act case dismissed by the Circuit Court of DuPage County.

I represent a contractor who did not have a written contract with his customers. Of course, the customers refuse to pay the last $15,000 of the job. So we sued them for breach of oral contract and quantum meruit. As I expected, they filed a motion to dismiss alleging violation of the Home Repair and Remodeling Act. But the twist on this case is that the house on which my client performed work is an investment property. The defendants told my client that they intended to flip that house for some property in Wisconsin when he finished his work.

So I argued that the "HOME" Repair and Remodeling Act only applies to people's homes, not their investment properties. There is a lot of language in the Act to support that argument which I will not get into right now, but the trial court did not buy it. The Court said that it did not see the distinction between investment properties and non-investment properties. My complaint was dismissed with prejudice.

The problem is that this is another relatively small case. Hopefully my client wants to spend some money to take this issue up on appeal. I'll let you know how it goes.