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Parking disputes lead to $40 million lawsuit by Marina City residents
16-Dec-08 – Two Marina City residents have filed a lawsuit with combined claim amounts of $40 million against Marina Towers Condominium Association, the commercial property manager, and the company that parks vehicles at Marina City. Edie and Joseph Mathers, owners of four condominium units at Marina City, filed the lawsuit on October 1. They are suing System Parking for $20 million, Transwestern Commercial Services for $10 million, and Marina Towers Condominium Association for $10 million. Although there appears to be 29 separate claims against the defendants, the dispute is mostly over an incident in 2006 in which Edie Mathers, also known as Angie Dickerson, claims an employee of System Parking assaulted her. It happened as she and her husband, Joseph Mathers, retrieved their vehicles on the plaza level of Marina City. However, it was Mathers who was arrested by Chicago Police, according to the civil complaint and confirmed on Monday by employees of System Parking. Mathers says the employee, Yaw Akwaboah, struck her “across the face with a customer ticket receipt while reaching across her face while [Mathers] was speaking to the cashier.” “At the same time,” says Mathers, “Akwaboah bumped Edie Mathers with his fat body, trying to move her out of the way while she was taking care of business as a monthly customer.”
Not satisfied with System Parking’s handling of the incident, Mathers says she called Chicago Police but was told they already had a call about the incident, which was apparently System Parking calling to complain about Mathers. Mathers says she was charged with battery based on a System Parking manager telling police that Mathers struck the manager “about the torso with an open hand causing minor redness and soreness.” In her civil complaint, Mathers refers to another incident in which she says a System Parking employee called her “a bitch” and later struck her in the back. The complaint offers glimpses into an ongoing dispute with System Parking over a truck the Mathers used for their video production business. Mathers says she received a letter from System Parking informing her she could no longer park in their ramps at Marina City, effective November 1, 2006. Having to find another place to park, says Mathers, was not only inconvenient but “placed us in harm’s way.” When she parked elsewhere, she says her truck was vandalized. When she tried to use short-term parking reserved for residents, police were called and her truck was towed. Mathers is claiming false charges, false arrest, false imprisonment, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, discrimination, negligence, interference with her business, racism, breach of contract, personal injury, property damage, infliction of emotional distress, trademark infringement, violations of the Civil Rights Act, racial profiling, harassment, sexism, racism, restraint of trade, defamation, libel and slander. The trademark infringement and restraint of trade claims are directed solely at Marina Towers Condominium Association, involving Mathers’s use of the words “Marina City Chicago,” which she has trademarked. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, on December 5, 2006, a trademark of the words “Marina City Chicago” was registered to Joseph Mathers for use with goods and services, namely clothing. MTCA files for dismissal On November 19, Judge William Maddux ordered the case transferred for trial to the Municipal Department, a division of the Circuit Court of Cook County that normally hears civil cases seeking $30,000 or less. Five days earlier, however, Daniel B. Meyer and Ellis Levin, representing Marina Towers Condominium Association, filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, saying it “is substantially insufficient in law.” The $40 million in damages, they write, exceeds the amount allowed by the Circuit Court of Cook County. Also, because many of the counts in the complaint are covered by the Illinois Human Rights Act, the motion points out they cannot be heard by any state court – and that the complaint “is neither plain nor concise.” “While the plaintiffs do plead some ‘facts’ in the complaint, the story told by those ‘facts’ is difficult if not impossible to discern,” writes Meyer and Levin. “Further, one cannot determine which defendants are party to which counts. Moreover, there does not appear to be any relation between the ‘facts’ set forth in the False Charges and Abuse of Process counts and the remaining counts of the complaint.” “Instead, the complaint, which contains less than six pages of substance yet contains 29 purported causes of action, is pleaded entirely in conclusions.”
The motion was scheduled to be presented on November 24. It’s not clear if the motion was heard or if it must wait until the case is assigned to a judge in the Municipal Department. The Mathers are requesting a jury trial. An employee of the Municipal Department, who is familiar with the case, said it would probably be heard during the third week of January. On April 26, 2004, Mathers sued MTCA and then-president James Curtin for what court documents say is $1 billion. According to MTCA attorney Ellis Levin, the lawsuit was dismissed on July 19, 2004. Update: An “emergency motion” has been filed by System Parking Inc. It will be heard in court Tuesday morning. An emergency motion seeks relief from the court on an expedited basis. A staff attorney in the Cook County Clerk of Court’s office has reviewed the motion and recommended that a judge hear and decide on it. It was filed on December 19 by O’Hagan Spencer LLC. on behalf of the defendant. |
