The Illinois Pollution Control Board recently ordered stricken a motion to dismiss in United City of Yorkville v. Hamman Farms, Case No. PCB 08-96, which is a citizen’s enforcement action concerning the defendant’s farmland in Kendall County, Illinois. The plaintiff’s complaint alleged open dumping violations, landscape waste violations, air pollution violations, and water pollution violations.
The defendant filed a motion to dismiss certain counts of the amended complaint, and the plaintiff moved to strike the motion to dismiss on the basis that the motion to dismiss was untimely. The Board agreed that the motion should be stricken because the motion to dismiss failed to comply with the 30-day deadline of the Board’s procedural rules for filing motions to dismiss. Under the Board’s procedural rules, a motion to dismiss must be filed within 30 days after service unless material prejudice would result; in contrast, any answer to a complaint is not due until 60 days after service.
This opinion should be a reminder to all practitioners to check the procedural rules of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, as they are different from the typical rules of state and federal courts.
Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.
