Plaintiff filed a complaint for administrative review after he was discharged from the position of highway maintainer pursuant to a written opinion from the administrative law judge. Upon filing the complaint, plaintiff filed summons and listed the defendants in the caption. He also included an attached service list, yet the defendant, the Illinois Department of Transportation, was not listed on the service list and was never served with summons. IDOT filed a motion to dismiss contending the summons was not issued within the requisite time period and the court granted the motion to dismiss. Pursuant to 735 ILCS 5/3-102, a party must file a complaint and issue summons within thirty-five days from the date the final administrative decision was served. The thirty-five day period is mandatory and, as the summons was never issued against IDOT, the court was correct to dismiss the action. Additionally, service on the attorney for IDOT was insufficient as the summons was to be issued directly to IDOT. Gunther v. Illinois Civil Service Commission, No. 1-02-1734, 2003 Ill.App. LEXIS 1417 (1st Dist. Dec. 9, 2003).
