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Village attorney: 37 legacy cases resolved; board asked to approve settlement of three more
Summary
Village attorney McGrath told the board his office has closed 37 of about 83–84 inherited cases, reported no new lawsuits under the current administration, requested approval to settle three more cases, and described a partial appellate win in the John's ProTree Service suit.
Attorney McGrath told the Dolton Village Board that his office has resolved 37 of the roughly "83, 84" litigation files inherited from the prior administration and that "there's been no new lawsuits filed under this administration," calling that a key sign of progress. McGrath said the resolved matters include court victories and negotiated settlements and said he expects legal fees and litigation costs to decline as those cases close.
McGrath said his office is "looking for approval to resolve, and settle" three pending cases; taking those three out of the docket would leave his office with 23 open cases, he said, while 10 additional matters are being handled by outside law firms and will require updates from those firms. He asked the board to consider those settlement approvals and warned that some details in his litigation summary cannot be made public because the material contains work product; he said he had sent that summary to "mayor House" and asked that it be shared with elected officials and department heads.
On a separate matter, McGrath described a lawsuit by a vendor identified in the transcript as "John's ProTree Service," saying the company sought an amount "in the ballpark of around $450,000." He said the village filed a motion to dismiss that was granted at the trial level. On appeal, he said the appellate court issued a decision last Thursday that "we didn't win completely," upholding four of five counts while returning one count to the trial court for further proceedings; McGrath said the office will conduct additional discovery on that count and is "confident that we'll prevail on that count also." He said he would update the mayor and board when that matter is resolved.
McGrath also told the board he had "important matters to discuss in executive session," and requested an executive session that evening to address confidential litigation issues. An unidentified board member thanked McGrath and staff for reducing the caseload and legal fees.
The board was asked to consider approval of three settlements; no vote or final action on those settlement requests is recorded in the transcript.
