Article

Foreclosure Sale Occurring After Dismissal for Want of Prosecution Was Properly Confirmed Upon Reins

In Plaza Bank v. Kappel, 268 Ill. Dec. 745, 779 N.E.2d 359 (1st Dist. 2002), the Appellate Court held that a foreclosure sale occurring after dismissal of the case for want of prosecution was properly confirmed by the trial court upon reinstatement. The mortgagee obtained a default judgment against the mortgagor. Later, the case was dismissed on the calendar call for want of prosecution and, subsequently, a public auction conducted and the property sold. The case was, thereafter, reinstated. The buyer tried to back out of the sale and argued that the sale should not be confirmed because the judicial sale was conducted after the case had been dismissed. In a matter of first impression, the Appellate Court affirmed the trial court's confirmation of the sale concluding that the sale was not a unauthorized "further [judicial] proceeding," the confirmation of the sale occurred after reinstatement and foreclosure statute specified the circumstances when the court shall refuse to confirm a sale, none of which were met in this case.