Carmichael v. Union Pacific R.R. Co.

Summary

The Illinois Supreme Court held that PTI's purported counterclaim was not a proper counterclaim because it duplicated affirmative defenses, sought only to defeat the plaintiff's claim, and attempted to assert claims against a nonparty. The court struck the counterclaim, vacated the lower courts' judgments, and remanded for PTI to proceed on its affirmative defenses. The court declined to decide the constitutional and private-right-of-action issues because doing so would improperly reward circumvention of the ordinary appellate process.