EDWARDSVILLE — A Madison County woman is suing multiple health care defendants, alleging their negligence caused the wrongful death of her father.

Peggy McKinnon, as executor of the estate of Dorse McKinnon, deceased filed a lawsuit July 12 in Madison County Circuit Court against Stearns Nursing and RehabilitationCenter LLC, Aurora Cares LLC, doing business as Tara Cares, Stearns Company LLC, Brent Hoffman, Jerry Nelson and Arthur Crowl, alleging violation of the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act.

According to the complaint, on July 13, 2014, Dorse McKinnon, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease and was a resident at defendants' facility at 3900 Stearns Ave., Granite City, was caused to fall by Crowl, resulting ultimately in McKinnon's death July 23, 2014. 

The plaintiff alleges the defendants failed to provide a safe environment, failed to provide proper personal care for their residents, failed to provide adequate supervision and failed to adequately monitor their residents.

Peggy McKinnon seeks a trial by jury, judgment of more than $50,000, attorney fees and legal costs, plus all other appropriate relief. She is represented by attorney Shaun M. Lieser of Lieser Law Firm LLC in St. Louis.

Madison County Circuit Court case number 16-L-985

BELLEVILLE — A Randolph County man is suing a barbecue sauce manufacturer, alleging it falsely advertises that its ingredients are all natural.

Larry Weigand filed a class action lawsuit, individually and on behalf of all other similarly-situated citizens of Illinois June 15 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against One World Foods, Inc. doing business as Stubb's Legendary Bar-B-Q, alleging false, deceptive, unfair and misleading merchandising practices, unjust enrichment and violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

According to the complaint, Weigand has been deceived into believing the defendant's soy, garlic and pepper all natural marinade is all natural and it does not contain any harmful artificial synthetic ingredients. However, the suit says, the defendant manufactured, marketed, distributed and sold the product that is not all natural.

The suit alleges the product actually contains synthetic ingredients such as citric acid and xanthan gum, and that Stubb's took advantage of a growing market by labeling the product as all natural.

Weigand seeks a trial by jury, certification this case is a class action, compensatory damages, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorney fees and legal costs and such relief as is just and proper. He is represented by attorneys Matthew H Armstrong of Armstrong Law Firm LLC in St. Louis, David C. Nelson of Nelson & Nelson, Attorneys at Law PC in Belleville, and Stuart L. Cochran of Cochran Law PLLC in Dallas.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 16-L-316

Illinois’ most impoverished school districts have lost millions of dollars to a scheme intended to shore up the state’s monumentally underfunded teacher pension reserve.

And it’s about to get worse.

Unlike their counterparts in other states, Illinois school districts pay a steep premium to the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, if they use Title I federal money to hire teachers.

Districts are assessed 36.06 percent of salaries paid with federal Title I funds, and that is set to increase to 38.54 percent for the 2016-2017 school year. By comparison, the rate for a district not using Title I money is and will remain 0.58 percent.

So a district using Title I money to hire a teacher at $50,000 a year would fork over $19,270 to TRS, but the tab for a district paying a teacher the same salary out of state and local funds would be $290.

To paraphrase U.S. Rep. Robert Dold, taxpayers from across the nation are pouring vast sums into Illinois’ teacher pension-debt quagmire. And the biggest losers? The very ones the Title I money is intended to aid – low-income students.

“There’s no question we need to get the fiscal house in order in the state of Illinois,” said Dold, R-Ill. “But to try to do this by taking federal dollars meant to shore up some of the neediest school districts is the wrong approach.”

According to Dold’s website, Illinois collects about $74.5 million a year through this practice and puts about $59 million toward paying down past years’ multibillion-dollar pension debt.

In 2015, Dold sponsored an education bill amendment to halt the practice. The measure passed unanimously in the House, but was taken out of the Senate’s version of the bill.

“We wrote [the amendment] in essence to take care of the situation in Illinois,” Dold said. “There is no other state in the country that I know of that does this.”

Dold sponsored a separate bill that would achieve the same result; it rests in the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee.

Superintendent Ehren Jarrett of Rockford School District 205 is among those wishing Dold and other like-minded lawmakers success. District 205 operates 47 schools serving about 29,000 students. Roughly 80 percent are low-income.

“It’s a huge impact on our district,” Jarrett said. “Over $1.6 million last year went toward the 36 percent rate that we had to pay … it’s an additional 20 full-time staff members we could hire with our own Title I dollars were it not for the penalty.”

The penalty does not apply when districts use Title I money for educational materials, equipment or noncertified staff. However, Jarrett and others said forcing districts to shuttle the federal dollars to areas of lesser need is counterproductive. And for the districts struggling the most – where fewer local dollars are available for salaries – the penalty strikes hardest.

“Like every other district, we try to minimize the effect” by spending as much local money as possible toward teacher salaries, Jarrett said. “But frankly, so much of what our students need is more time with certified staff.”

That message is not lost on state Rep. Joe Sosnowski, R-Rockford, who referred to Illinois’ practice as theft.

“We’re really robbing those federal funds in order to shore up our pension system,” he said.

“Wide bipartisan support exists to cap the state tax rate of Title I money to represent the employer’s normal cost, which would exclude the unfunded liability that the state created,” Sosnowski said.

However, a bill passed in the Senate this spring has yet to be assigned to a House committee.

“That falls in the speaker’s lap,” Sosnowski said, referring to House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. “I’m not sure of the rationale for not assigning it, but we weren’t able to get any movement.”

Even those in charge of TRS see the present situation as wrong-headed.

“The TRS board voted in 2013 to reduce the amount of money school districts needed to pay to cover the retirement costs of teachers hired with federal funds,” TRS spokesman David Urbanek said in an email. “The board at the time was unanimous that school districts should only have to pay for the actual cost of teachers’ pensions and no more.”

The General Assembly overrode the TRS board’s unanimous decision, Urbanek said. Furthermore, it removed the board’s power to set the rate.

“School districts should not have to use limited federal funds meant for teaching to pay for a problem that they did not create, namely an unfunded liability built up by decades of inadequate funding by state government,” Urbanek said.

Joe Bascio, Springfield District 186 business manager, said his district sent hundreds of thousands of its 2015-2016 Title I dollars to TRS.

The district has 35 buildings and enrolls 15,062 students, of which 8,836, or 58.7 percent, are low-income, he said. The district’s Title I budget for the 2015-2016 school year was $6.65 million. Officials spent $2.1 million of it on teacher salaries. That meant the district paid $755,000 toward the TRS requirement.

“That $755,000 could be going to student needs,” Bascio said. “It is a big issue.”

With the rate rising ever closer to 40 percent, District 186 is budgeting differently for the coming school year to avoid the penalty, he added. Title I money will be allocated primarily toward needs other than teacher salaries, which will avoid having to pay about $900,000 in TRS penalties.

In Quincy School District 172, about 64 percent of the district’s 6,500 students qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program, a harbinger for Title I dollars.

“Do I like paying 38 percent into TRS? No,” said Quincy Business Manager Joel Murphy. “It forces us to make some judgments as to what salaries we wind up paying out of Title I dollars and what we don’t because we’re trying to maximize the dollars that we have.”

Murphy said he is concerned, however, about the ramifications of eliminating the practice. “There are a lot of things happening in Springfield,” he said. “They’re talking about shifting some of those [pension-debt obligation] costs back to us. … I’m not sure how that benefits students, either.”

Dold noted that the $700,000 that Waukegan schools in his 10th Congressional District paid to TRS made the difference between having and not having all-day kindergarten.

“That’s a big deal in a community where you have single parents who are working or both parents working,” he said. “We’ll continue to highlight this issue and continue to work on it.”

EDWARDSVILLE — A Madison County woman is suing a motorist, alleging the defendant's negligence led to a car crash that injured the plaintiff. 

Jodi S. Dwyer filed a complaint on July 6 in Madison County Circuit Court against Nellie A. Smith, alleging negligence. 

According to the complaint, on July 16, 2014, Dwyer was driving northbound while exiting the Fast Track convenience store in East Alton. At the same time, the suit says, Smith backed her vehicle out of a parking space and collided with the plaintiff's vehicle.

The lawsuit says the collision caused Dwyer to sustain injuries to her body and limbs, resulting in pain and suffering, emotional distress and medical expenses. The plaintiff alleges Smith failed to keep proper lookout, proceeded at a speed greater than reasonable and carelessly backed her vehicle.

Dwyer seeks a trial by jury, judgment of more than $50,000, plus costs of suit. She is represented by attorneys Gregory D. Abel and Julie A. Themer of Hausmann McNally SC in Decatur.

Madison County Circuit Court case number 16-L-953

EDWARDSVILLE — A Madison County car owner is suing another motorist, alleging her negligence caused a car crash that injured the plaintiff.

Neal Hornbostel filed a lawsuit June 16 in Madison County Circuit Court against Samantha Hedlund, alleging negligence in that insufficient measures were taken to prevent injuries.

According to the complaint, on June 16, 2015, when Hornbostel was driving southbound on state Route 4 in Madison County, he was run into by a car driven by Hedlund. The suit says he sustained injuries on his head, body and right knee, soft tissue damage to his shoulder and was made sick, lame, disoriented and disabled. 

The plaintiff alleges Hedlund failed to keep proper lookout for other vehicles, operated her vehicle at an excessive rate of speed and failed to apply her brakes in a timely fashion.

Hornbostel seeks a trial by jury and judgment of more than $50,000. He is represented by attorneys Thomas C. Rich, Kristina D. Cooksey and Mitchelle M. Rich of Fairview Heights.

Madison County Circuit Court Case number 16L1002

EDWARDSVILLE — A Madison County man is suing two Illinois residents, alleging their negligence led to a car crash that injured the plaintiff.

Jean Bedel Bonne-Annee filed a lawsuit July 11 in Madison County Circuit Court against Mark E. Worker and Zachary England, alleging negligence in failing to maintain proper control of their vehicle.

According to the complaint, on May 28, 2015, Bonne-Annee was driving west on Interstate Highway 70 near its intersection with state Route 43 and was stopped in the left lane of traffic in the Marine Township. The suit says Worker, an employee of England's, negligently operated their vehicle and collided with the rear of the plaintiff's vehicle.

The collision, the lawsuit states, caused Bonne-Annee to to sustain injuries that resulted in great pain and discomfort, physical impairment and medical expenses. The plaintiff alleges Worker failed to keep proper lookout, failed to sound his horn, failed to slow down and stop and failed to maintain a proper speed.

Bonne-Annee seeks a trial by jury, judgment of more than $50,000, plus costs of suit. He is represented by attorney Mark A. Bazzanella of Law Offices of Mark A. Bazzanella in Chicago.

Madison County Circuit Court case number 16-L-981

SPRINGFIELD — In a legislative session noted as one of inaction until the brink of a new fiscal year, one bill Illinois lawmakers did manage to pass was a measure that requires life insurance companies to make an effort to track down beneficiaries of unclaimed policies, contracts and accounts when they know the policyholder has died.

The bill called the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act, passed both houses and was sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner on June 27 where it remains unsigned. 

The law would require insurance companies to make “good faith efforts” to locate beneficiaries of unclaimed life insurance policies, annuity contracts, and retained asset accounts. It would require companies to start comparing their records to the U.S. Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF) — an updated database of death certificates that would show whether the policyholder has died. If the company can’t find the beneficiary, the law would require it to give up the proceeds as unclaimed property, which are handled by the Illinois State Treasurer.

Stakeholders lobbied both sides of the issue, which has been raised in several states over the last few years. Many in the industry are open to the changes — which garnered unanimous support from lawmakers — but it constitutes a major shift in how these insurance policies are handled, a Kemper Corp. spokesperson told the Record.

“Keep in mind that virtually all insurance products have always been marketed and regulated with the understanding that the customer would come forward to initiate the claim process,” the spokesperson said. “Now, the life insurance industry is being told that it’s incumbent on the companies to go out and find out if a claim might be payable. That’s a massive change to absorb.”

While calling for the governor to sign the bill, Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerich and other proponents pointed to companies who use the Death Master File to stop annuity payments but not to determine if life insurance benefits are owed.

“It’s a disappointing fact, but some life insurance companies admit that they avoid paying death benefits to increase their profit margins,” Frerichs said in a statement asking Rauner to sign the bill. “Governor Rauner has an opportunity to sign into law a measure to ensure Illinois residents are not victimized by certain life insurance companies.”

But there’s also more under the surface of the issue — and there may be more in it for the state of Illinois than Frerichs says.

In 2015, three Kemper Corp. insurance companies sued Frerichs and private auditing company Verus Financial, claiming they were requiring insurers to pay policy benefits to beneficiaries or to the state if the policyholder appeared on the DMF, rather than paying benefits when they are due under policy contracts.

According to the suit, Frerichs’ authorized unclaimed property examinations of about 40 insurers that issue life insurance policies in the state, and in many of these audits he hired Verus to do the audit. Verus gets paid for results, either as a percentage or a flat fee.

Litigation is ongoing in California and Illinois.

The law that passed in Illinois holds that if an insurer can’t locate a beneficiary, the benefits get handed over to the treasurer as unclaimed property. There are steps in place to continue the effort to reunite people with the money their loved one intended them to have. But, after a while, if it isn’t collected, the state can keep it.

Kemper Corp. is critical of states’ efforts to pass this law because of potential conflicts of interest.

“These states may claim they are just protecting consumers, but their actions expose that they are more interested in getting their hands on monies and properties that citizens may not be monitoring. States generally do a poor job of returning assets to the rightful owner,” the Kemper spokesperson said. “Additionally, state officials have not disclosed that the other big winners in this area are the audit firms that take a huge piece of the assets they claim to have ‘found.’”

The lawsuit with Verus revealed that the audit firm has earned more than $51 million from its work in California and Illinois, the spokesperson said. “States and these auditing firms have a questionable relationship that needs further examination, as does the state treasurers’ conflict of interest.”

Verus was unavailable to answer questions for this article, but public records show it hired a handful of lobbyists during this year’s legislative session.

Kemper, which also lobbied state lawmakers, calls the bill a “one-size-fits-all approach” that doesn’t suit companies that haven’t acted inappropriately with consumers.

“Given the state treasurer’s rhetoric on the topic, we believe lawmakers supported the Illinois bill because they were not fully informed on all the facts,” the spokesperson said. “When they only heard about the 24 companies that behaved inappropriately and settled — out of the hundreds of life insurers that serve consumers honorably — they approved the one-size-fits-all bill.”

Legislatures across the country are considering enacting laws that fall under a new national standard supported by the insurance industry. The American Council of Life Insurers has advocated strongly for the standard.

So far, 21 states have enacted legislation, John Gerni, Regional Vice President of State Relations at the American Council of Life Insurers, told the Record. He said the Illinois bill includes provisions ACLI strongly supports, but it isn’t based on the national standard ACLI drafted with other stakeholders.

The insurance industry is starting to recognize ways that life insurance differs from other kinds of insurance, Steven Weisbart, senior vice president and chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, told the Record. If a person gets into a collision with a car, he or she informs the insurance agency. It’s meant to work the same with life insurance — the insurer waits for a beneficiary to file a claim.

But people live longer now. They could forget they purchased a plan decades ago; the company could have merged with another or changed its name. Either way the timeframe makes it more likely that the beneficiaries don’t know the plan exists or where to file a claim.

“There’s widespread agreement that companies should check with records of death,” Weisbart said.

Some states want this new rule to affect past policies, as well. Industry opinions differ over whether that’s fair, Weisbart said. 

This is one of Kemper’s issues with the Illinois law.

“We suggested that with respect to companies that were already using the DMF on part of their business, mainly annuities, that such companies should have to use the DMF on all of their policies,” the spokesperson said. “For companies like us, however, that had not used the DMF, we felt a reasonable solution was to require DMF use on all policies sold going forward.”

The spokesperson said Kemper hopes Rauner either vetoes the bill and pushes the legislature to revisit the issue or uses his amendatory veto powers to “fix the flaws in the current bill.”

Jill E. Bowers, executor of the estate of Alan R. Bowers Sr., deceased filed a complaint on July 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Samuel R. Latham and T. F. Acquisition LLC, doing business as Transfreight, alleging wrongful death.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on July 24, 2015, plaintiff’s decedent was operating a 2004 John Deere tractor traveling eastbound on state Route 154 in Perry County while defendant Latham, who was operating a 2014 Freightliner truck, negligently struck decedent's tractor, resulting in the decedent's death. The plaintiff holds Latham and T. F. Acquisition LLC responsible because Latham allegedly failed to keep a proper lookout, failed to yield to other traffic properly on the roadway and drove faster than reasonable.

The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against the defendant for a fair and just award of more than $75,000 plus costs of this suit. She is represented by Jon E. Rosenstengel of Bonifield & Rosenstengel PC in Belleville.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:16-cv-802

Constance Starnes filed a complaint on July 18 in the Madison County Circuit Court against the Malissa Phillips and Tammie Starnes alleging negligence.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on Oct. 8, 2015, she was a passenger in the vehicle being driven by defendant Starnes when defendants got involved in a motor vehicle collision, causing her to sustain injuries that resulted in physical pain and suffering, disfigurement, disability and medical expenses. The suit states the incident took place on Sixth Street and Alton Avenue. The plaintiff holds Phillips and Starnes responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to yield right of way, failed to reduce speed, failed to keep proper lookout and failed to exercise reasonable care.

The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendants in an amount greater than $50,000 and for such further relief as the court deems just and proper. She is represented by Matthew P. Young of Kuehn, Beasley & Young PC in Belleville.

Madison County Circuit Court case number 16-L-1017

Bobbie R. Highsmith III filed a complaint on July 15 in the Madison County Circuit Court against James E. Perry alleging negligence.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on Oct. 31, 2015, he was pushing an inoperable motorized bike in a parking lane on Washington Avenue in Alton when the defendant left his lane of travel and struck the plaintiff. The plaintiff alleges he sustained injuries, but not limited to, his right hand that made him sick, sore, lame and disordered. The plaintiff holds Perry responsible because the defendant allegedly negligently and carelessly failed to reduce vehicle speed, lose control of the vehicle and disobeyed law of traffic.

The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment in his favor in an amount of more than $50,000. He is represented by Craig J. Jensen of MeyerJensen PC in Alton.

Madison County Circuit Court Case number 16L1010