Yardley v. Yardley

Plaintiff, Nancy P. Yardley, individually and as administrator of the estate of her husband, Steven Yardley, has brought these appeals from an order of the trial court under section 2-615 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 110, par. 2-615) which dismissed with prejudice counts II through VI of her six-count third-amended complaint against defendants, Stanton Yardley, Jerry Yardley, and the Northern Trust Company (the Northern), individually and as trustees. The dismissed counts sought various remedies against defendants in connection with their administration of certain trusts. Count I, which survived the order appealed from, sought actual and punitive damages from Stanton and Jerry Yardley for conversion of certain property which had belonged to plaintiff's decedent before he died. Plaintiff filed her first notice of appeal, No. 84-487, within 30 days after the trial court denied her motion to vacate the dismissal but before judgment was entered on count I. When the trial judge denied plaintiff's motion to vacate the dismissal, he refused to make a finding under Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (87 Ill.2d R. 304(a)) that there was no just reason for delaying enforcement or appeal of the order of dismissal. The Northern filed a motion to dismiss that appeal as premature which was taken with the case.