Door Props., LLC v. Nahlawi

2023 IL App (1st) 230012

220 N.E.3d 464

468 Ill.Dec. 156

DOOR PROPERTIES, LLC ; Serani Carol Anderson; Midwest Bank Trust Company; and Wildwood, LLC, Plaintiffs,

v.Ayad M. NAHLAWI, Defendant-Appellant

(Door Properties, LLC, Plaintiff-Appellee).

Nos. 1-23-0012

1-23-0084 (consolidated)

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, SECOND DIVISION.

June 6, 2023

Kevin S. Besetzny, of Besetzny Law P.C., of Chicago, for appellant.

Kevin K. McCormick, of DeWald Law Group PC, of Arlington Heights, for appellee.

OPINION

JUSTICE ELLIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 As our federal colleagues once told another serial contemnor, the first rule of holes is to stop digging. Lightspeed Media Corp. v. Smith , 761 F.3d 699, 702 (7th Cir. 2014). Ayad Nahlawi would be wise to heed that advice now. When we last saw him, he was in contempt of court and racking up contempt fines by the day. His debts—already sizeable—keep growing ever larger. Yet he continues to flout the commands of the courts of this state.

¶ 2 His most recent misadventure landed him in jail, after the court issued a writ of body attachment with a "cash bond" of $262,000—the sum of his contempt fines up to that point (the meter is still running). When Nahlawi was detained on a routine traffic stop, the police executed the writ, locking him up in Cook County jail on condition that he pay the $262,000.

¶ 3 He petitioned for emergency relief from this court. Sensing the strong likelihood of error, we ordered him released until we could consider the matter by expedited appeal.

¶ 4 We now vacate the court's order and the writ of body attachment. Though we are sympathetic to the trial court, which inherited this difficult situation and understandably grew impatient with Nahlawi, we nevertheless find that the court erred in locking up Nahlawi on the condition that he pay the contempt fine. But Nahlawi should understand clearly that, under the proper procedure, he could soon face jail again if he continues to refuse to answer the discovery requests that prompted the contempt finding years ago.

¶ 5 BACKGROUND

¶ 6 We return to the multivolume tale that is Door Properties, LLC's (Door Properties) quest to collect a judgment of approximately $750,000 from Nahlawi. For a comprehensive history of how everyone got here, begin with Door Properties, LLC v. Nahlawi , 2015 IL App (1st) 131256-U, 2015 WL 302907, which affirmed the underlying judgment. Everything that has happened in this case since our affirmance of the underlying judgment in 2015 has revolved around Door Properties’ attempt, via postjudgment supplementary proceedings, to collect its judgment from Nahlawi.

¶ 7 Though Nahlawi has claimed to be penniless, Door Properties has long believed that Nahlawi has been receiving compensation through parents, friends, or other entities to skirt Door Properties’ efforts to collect on its judgment. See Door Properties, LLC v. Nahlawi , 2021 IL App (1st) 182568-U, ¶ 44, 2021 WL 1238134. This compensation might not "land on a W-2 or 1099 form" but may qualify as attachable compensation no less. Id. To confirm its suspicions, Door Properties has labored to learn more about the nature of these relationships.

¶ 8 Not long ago, we affirmed a pair of orders holding Nahlawi in contempt of court for refusing to comply with two citation rider requests Door Properties issued, seeking to discover any assets he might have. See id .; Door Properties, LLC v. Nahlawi , 2021 IL App (1st) 190235-U, 2021 WL 3773346. Nahlawi's failure to comply with these two discovery orders, even after we affirmed the contempt findings, forms the backbone of the present controversy.

¶ 9 A. The Original Citation Rider

¶ 10 The first of these discovery orders came about after Door Properties issued a citation to discover Nahlawi's assets. Included in that citation was a rider requesting additional documents. Nahlawi objected to one of the requests—request 20—in that original rider. After narrowing the scope of request 20 more than once, the court overruled his objection and ordered him to comply with it. Nahlawi did not answer it, more battles ensued, and the case languished for several more years.

¶ 11 But on February 6, 2018, the court reached the end of its rope. It ordered Nahlawi to answer request 20 of the original citation rider within 21 days or else. He ran to this court, but we dismissed his appeal for a lack of appellate jurisdiction. Door Properties, LLC v. Nahlawi , 2018 IL App (1st) 180355-U, 2018 WL 4571645. Upon remand from our dismissal, on October 15, 2018, the court again ordered Nahlawi to comply with request 20 of the original citation rider. Nahlawi still refused and instead asked to be held in "friendly contempt." On November 20, 2018, the court granted the contempt part but was not inclined to be friendly about it. Instead, it found Nahlawi to be in indirect civil contempt and imposed a sanction of $100 a day until he purged the contempt by producing the documents in request 20. Nahlawi appealed, and we affirmed the trial court in all respects. See Door Properties , 2021 IL App (1st) 182568-U.

¶ 12 B. The Supplemental Citation Rider

¶ 13 Meanwhile, Door Properties issued a second, supplemental rider to the original citation on April 18, 2018, asking for more documents and information. Nahlawi objected to the entirety of the supplemental rider, but on November 20, 2018 (the same day it held him in contempt for failing to comply with request 20), the court overruled all his objections. It ordered him to respond to the supplemental rider by December 4, 2018.

¶ 14 On December 12, Nahlawi (having not responded to the supplemental rider), asked the court to hold him in "friendly contempt." Again, the court was happy to hold him in contempt but not to be friendly about it. It found him in indirect civil contempt for willfully failing to respond to the supplemental rider. Nahlawi appealed, and we affirmed, presuming the circuit court's decision was proper because we did not have an adequate record to review. Door Properties , 2021 IL App (1st) 190235-U.

¶ 15 C. Contempt Proceedings Postremand

¶ 16 With those cases finished, Nahlawi was in contempt of two orders: (1) the October 15, 2018, order requiring him to comply with request 20 of the original citation rider and (2) the November 20, 2018, order that required him to comply with the supplemental citation rider. (For brevity, we will refer to them as the "discovery orders.") Yet Nahlawi still refused to yield.

¶ 17 To perhaps prod Nahlawi yet again, Door Properties filed a "Petition to Set Purge" in the circuit court on January 18, 2022. In that petition, Door Properties noted that Nahlawi had exhausted his appeals of the contempt findings and had not yet produced any records as required by the discovery orders. It then asked the trial court to set a "purge amount and a purge deadline."

¶ 18 The court gave Nahlawi an opportunity to respond to the petition to set a purge, but (perhaps unsurprisingly) he did not. In a written order entered on July 5, 2022, the court granted Door Properties’ petition. After reciting much of the tortured history of the case, the court concluded that Nahlawi had not produced any documents in response to the citation riders, that he had not "purged himself of the contempt," and that there was no just reason to delay setting a "purge amount" on the sanctions. It calculated that Nahlawi had been in contempt for a total of 2620 days and, at a penalty of $100 per day, had accumulated a monetary sanction of $262,000 in contempt fines.

¶ 19 The court then issued a "writ of body attachment" against Nahlawi "for his indirect civil contempt with Cash Bail set in the amount of $262,000 to be paid to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois." The court stayed the writ for 45 days, until August 19, 2022, to allow Nahlawi to pay the $262,000 sanction. But if Nahlawi did not pay, the court ordered the writ given to the Cook County Sheriff for enforcement. Last, the court reminded Nahlawi he still had to respond to the citation riders and that, every day he failed to do so, his fines increased.

¶ 20 Nahlawi filed a motion to reconsider in August. In that motion, Nahlawi argued that he could not comply with the monetary sanction because he was without any assets, "certainly any assets sufficient to pay a sanction of $262,000." Nahlawi argued that, since he was unable to pay the sanction, the court should reduce or vacate the sanction, since it would have no coercive effect on him. He also claimed he was working to reply to request 20 of the original citation rider and requested additional time to do so.

¶ 21 On December 20, 2022, the court denied Nahlawi's motion to reconsider. In an 11-page order, the court wrote that "Nahlawi's total defiance and unwillingness to comply with his obligations *** has operated to paralyze, if not completely eviscerate, this Court's efforts to effectively and timely manage these citation proceedings." It blasted Nahlawi's "contemptuous conduct" for delaying the collection of the judgment and the harm it caused the plaintiffs in the case. The court was unmoved by Nahlawi's argument that he was unable to pay the sanction, calling his claim that he was a pauper, without evidence, an "absurd argument." The court then stayed the writ of body attachment until January 4, 2023, with orders it be given to the sheriff if Nahlawi had not paid the "purge sum" of $262,000 at that time. Nahlawi filed a notice of appeal in this court shortly thereafter.

¶ 22 On February 16, 2023, Nahlawi was stopped by police in a routine traffic stop. Pursuant to the writ of body attachment, police took him into custody. Nahlawi was remanded to the Cook County Jail until and unless he posted the $262,000 "cash bond."

¶ 23 Nahlawi filed an emergency motion in this court on February 21, 2023, requesting we stay enforcement of the writ of body attachment and order Nahlawi released pending his appeal from the July 5 and December...