The Illinois Appellate Court for the First District, Sixth Division, affirmed a trial court decision granting Freeborn & Peters' clients' motion for summary judgment. This was a securities case within the local telecommunications industry where the two plaintiffs alleged that our clients and several other defendants made fraudulent oral statements in connection with a private, unregistered transaction. The agreements that memorialized the deal contained representations from Plaintiffs that they had not relied on any oral statements, so we sought summary judgment on that basis, arguing that Plaintiffs could never demonstrate reasonable reliance on the alleged oral statements.
We initially won summary judgment in federal court. Plaintiffs then refiled their case in Illinois state court alleging state securities and common law claims. We won summary judgment there, as well, and Plaintiffs appealed. The Appellate Court followed almost verbatim the reasoning set out in our brief, resulting in a trial court victory.