2020 IL App (1st) 173163 THIRD DIVISION December 23, 2020 No. 1-17-3163 ______________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________ DOOR PROPERTIES, LLC, ) ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of v. ) Cook County ) AYAD M. NAHLAWI, ) 10 L 12931 ) Defendant, ) Honorable ) Alexander P. White, (Mago BB, LLC, ) Judge Presiding Third-Party Citation Respondent-Appellant.) ) _____________________________________________________________________________ JUSTICE ELLIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Presiding Justice Howse and Justice Burke concurred in the judgment and opinion. OPINION ¶1 Plaintiff Door Properties, LLC obtained a judgment against defendant Ayad Nahlawi for just over $750,000, a judgment we affirmed in all respects in an unpublished order in 2015. See Door Properties, LLC v. Nahlawi, 2015 IL App (1st) 131256-U. Now a judgment creditor, Door Properties sought to collect that judgment against Nahlawi (now a judgment debtor) by initiating supplemental proceedings under section 2-1402 of the Code of Civil Procedure. See 735 ILCS 5/2- 1402(f)(1) (West 2014). ¶2 Specific to this matter, Door Properties served a citation to discover assets on respondent, Mago BB, LLC (Mago). Nearly three years after the citation was served, Door Properties No. 1-17-3163 discovered that Mago had paid at least $15,000 of Nahlawi’s attorney fees in various legal matters. Door Properties moved for judgment against Mago, claiming that, contrary to its responses in the supplementary proceeding, Mago did possess property belonging to Nahlawi, as evidenced by its payment of some of Nahlawi’s attorney fees. ¶3 In response, Mago argued that the $15,000 paid on Nahlawi’s behalf was not Nahlawi’s “property” as defined by section 2-1402. Instead, the payment of attorney fees was “a gift” and “reciprocation for favors that Nahlawi had done for them in the past.” Without conducting an evidentiary hearing, in a written memorandum order, the circuit court concluded that “these types of funds fall within the purview of § 1402(f)(1) and are the type of assets meant to be protected by the legislature.” Thus, the trial court entered judgment in favor of Door Properties and against Mago. ¶4 We vacate that judgment, as questions of fact exist that do not permit judgment on the papers and arguments alone. We remand for an evidentiary hearing. ¶5 BACKGROUND ¶6 In 2012, Door Properties obtained an approximately $750,000 judgment against Nahlawi. In an effort to collect, Door Properties served a third-party citation to discover assets on Mago, an LLC owned by Nahlawi’s parents and friends/business partners, Richard Munoz and Juan Gonzalez. The citation stated, in relevant part: “YOU ARE PROHIBITED from making or allowing any transfer or other disposition of, or interfering with, any property not exempt from execution or garnishment belonging to the judgment debtor or to which the judgment debtor may be entitled or which may be acquired by or comes due to judgment debtor, until further order of court or termination of the proceedings. “ -2- No. 1-17-3163 ¶7 In 2014, Munoz, as Mago’s manager, answered the citation and indicated that ...
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