IFC gets Walloped in Jury Trial
With Cook County Superior Court Justice Matthew F. Kennelly presiding, and in what may be the first IFC Credit Corporation-NorVergence lease jury trial, a precedent may be set in a win by Gregory Adamski, Managing Partner and Samantha R. Engel, Attorney, Adamski & Conti, Chicago, Illinois. The jury heard the case for four days and took only 2 1/2 hours (over the lunch hour) to agree with the presentation that United Business & Industrial Federal Credit Union was "induced by fraud to sign the 5 NorVergence contracts without knowledge of, or reasonable opportunity to learn of, the character or essential terms of the contracts." The legal term for this defense is called "fraud in the factum" or "essential fraud." This involved approximately $120,000 in five leases with possibly $80-$100,000 in attorney fees from Askounis & Borst, P.C. According to Leasing News records, there were 550 IFC Credit Corporation leases purchased from NorVergence. Most of the cases Leasing News could determine from Pacer records were handled by Askounis & Borst, who at one time threatened to sue Leasing News for printing the news about the SOS case in Texas. Ironically, Leasing News also found one instance where Askounis & Borst also represented directly NorVergence Corporation and defending NorVergence against a fraud counterclaim only one month prior to IFC entering into the Master Program Agreement with NorVergence. The matter was brought up before the jury trial. (In the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division: 1:03-cv-05239 NorVergence v. Moo & Oink. Please see motions at the end. Editor) IFC Credit did not respond to any inquiries regarding this jury trial case.
Managing Partner Gregory Adamski "In deposition, IFC admitted to writing the NorVergence leasing contract,” Managing Partner Gregory Adamski said. "In the trial, they said it was NorVergence who actually wrote the MPA, but admitted that it was approved by IFC Credit. “ In fact, the United Business & Industrial Federal Credit Union" contracts were some of IFC Credit's earlier purchases from NorVergence, assigned January 12, 2004. They made claims that the 'equipment' was proprietary, when in fact it was only an Adtran router, and that it converted data in a way so there would be no extra long distance charges. "On December 12th, they gave the credit union a booklet that this was an application for telecommunications service, when in fact part of the package they presented were leasing equipment rental agreements tied to a master agreement with IFC Credit. NorVergence pitched that its product was in such high demand, that it needed to determine whether the customer was worthy of doing business with it. CIO of the credit union, Mike Knurek, stated that 'it was like trying out to become a member of an exclusive club.' "When the unit was installed on January 9, 2004, Knurek informed NorVergence that it was not running and complained about it. What he got was a telephone call from NorVergence telling him had to accept this or go back to the waiting list, and even though it was not working, he had to confirm that everything was delivered. "Next Knurek received a call from IFC asking if the equipment was delivered. He said it was, but it wasn't running. Despite this information, IFC bought the leases from NorVergence and have been litigating over them ever since.”
Attorney Samantha Engel "I am pleased that the jury looked beyond the four corners of the contracts and saw through NorVergence fraudulent conduct, "Attorney Engel said." I sincerely hope that companies learn that they cannot hide behind the holder in due course rule, putting their head in the sand and profit off of an obvious scam." Motion to disqualify Askounis-Borst re: representing NorVergence Askounis-Borst response Amended Complaint by Adamski & Conti: |
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