In a recent opinion, the Appellate Court affirmed a trial court decision to vacate a judicial deed and declare it null and void because the Cook County Land Bank Authority (“CCLBA”) was a necessary party to the case and was not made a defendant by the Village. The case is Village of Dolton v. Stephens-Redeaux, et al., 2026 IL App (1st) 251019.
The Village of Dolton filed abandonment proceedings to have the trial court declare abandoned a property located on Shepard Drive in the Village. The Village alleged the property was “in a failed property maintenance state, in an open and hazardous condition, containing debris, garbage and other unhealthy conditions,” and named the title owner and Deutsche Bank as defendants. When the defendants did not answer or appear the Village moved for default on October 16, 2023, and the trial court entered a default order of abandonment. Pursuant to 65 ILCS 5/11-31-1(d), the Village then filed a petition for judicial deed, which the trial court granted on January 4, 2024. On that same date, the trial court issued an executed judicial deed to the Village.
The Village did not notify or name CCLBA as a defendant in the abandonment case, but the same Shepard Drive property had been sold to CCLBA at a tax sale in 2023 and the tax deed to CCLBA was recorded by the Cook County Clerk on February 29, 2024. On July 16, 2024, CCLBA filed a petition to intervene as a matter of right in the Village’s abandonment case. CCLBA told the court it met the criteria for intervention as of right and that it should have been named as a defendant and served with process under the abandonment statute because it was a tax purchaser. 65 ILCS 5/11-31-1. The statute provides that “[a]ll persons having an interest of record in the property, including tax purchasers and beneficial owners of any Illinois land trust having title to the property, shall be named as defendants in the petition and shall be served with process.” 65 ILCS 5/11-31-1(d). The Village opposed CCLBA’s petition to intervene, arguing that CCLBA lacked an “interest of record” in the property.
The trial court allowed CCLBA to intervene, vacated the tax deed and declared it null and void. It observed that tax purchasers must be named as defendants and must be given notice of abandonment proceedings. See 65 ILCS 5/11-31-1(d). CCLBA was required to be named even though its tax deed was not recorded with the Cook County Clerk when the Village obtained its judicial deed. The Appellate Court observed that, for parties who must be named as defendants, the statute speaks of an “interest of record,” not a “recorded interest,” and that tax sales, the identity of tax purchasers, petitions for tax deeds, and court orders directing issuance of tax deeds are all matters of public record. In this case, the Village simply failed to check the public record.
The Appellate Court also observed that CCLBA met all the statutory factors in 735 ILCS 5/2-408(a) to intervene and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion under 735 ILCS 5/2-1401 in vacating the abandonment finding and judicial deed. Stated the Appellate Court, a judicial deed is not immune from being vacated under section 2-1401 when sufficient cause is shown: “[a] judicial deed, like any final order, may be vacated if the statutory and equitable requirements of section 2-1401 are met.” Vacating the judicial deed “restores the status quo ante, as though a judgment had never been entered.”
The Village also argued that the CCLBA should have filed a lis pendens in connection with the tax deed proceedings to protect its interest in the property. But the Village pointed to no legal authority that CCLBA was required to do so, and the Village itself did not file a lis pendens when it commenced the abandonment action. The Appellate Court observed that had the Village filed a lis pendens at the outset of the case, CCLBA might have learned of the proceedings before the judicial deed issued. The mere fact that both CCLBA and the Village could have filed a lis pendens does not mean the trial court abused its discretion in vacating the judicial deed.
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