Lewis v. Rice

── Lewis v. Rice ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: April 15, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (1st) 241729-U Order filed: April 15, 2026 FIRST DISTRICT THIRD DIVISION No. 1-24-1729 NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________ SHALANDA LEWIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County. ) v. ) No. 2023 1121236 ) CARROLL RICE and KRYSTAL RICE, ) Honorable ) Jasmine Hernandez, Defendants-Appellants. ) Judge, presiding. ______________________________________________________________________________ JUSTICE ROCHFORD delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Martin and Justice Reyes concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: We affirm the small claims judgment in favor of plaintiff and against her former landlord for the return of monies deducted from her security deposit. We dismiss a separate claim for lost wages and vacate the judgment entered on that claim. ¶2 Plaintiff, Shalanda Lewis, leased an apartment from defendants, Carroll and Krystal Rice. After the lease ended, defendants returned plaintiff’s security deposit but deducted $448 for the cost of replacing the apartment’s window air conditioning unit. Plaintiff filed a small claims action, seeking the recovery of the $448 deducted from the security deposit plus an additional $500 for “lost wages.” After a bench trial at which only plaintiff appeared, the trial court entered judgment No. 1-24-1729 for plaintiff on March 5, 2024, for the $448 deducted from the security deposit plus $470 in lost wages. On June 13, 2024, defendants filed a petition for relief pursuant to section 2-1401 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (735 ILCS 5/2-1401 (West 2024)), claiming they never received notice of the trial. The trial court denied the section 2-1401 petition. Defendants appeal. We affirm the judgment for plaintiff for the $448 deducted from the security deposit. We dismiss the claim for lost wages and vacate the judgment entered on that claim. ¶3 The parties entered into the lease on June 1, 2021. The lease provides for a security deposit of $1325. Paragraph 10 states: “At the termination of this Lease and upon surrender of the Premises, all fixtures, appliances and personal property of Landlord shall be in the same condition as they were on the Beginning Date, normal wear and tear excepted. Landlord may at its sole option use all or part of the Security Deposit (if any) to repair and/or replace any damage to Landlord’s property caused either directly by Tenant or by Tenant’s negligence.” ¶4 In July 2021, plaintiff texted defendants that the window air conditioning unit was not working properly. Defendants subsequently purchased a new air conditioning unit for $448 and installed it in plaintiff’s apartment. ¶5 In September 2023, after the lease ended, defendants sent plaintiff a “lease security deposit return letter” stating that they were deducting the $44