C/F Int’l., Inc. v. Payne, No. 06 C 1329, 2006 WL 22290992 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 3, 2006) (Kennelly, J.).

Plaintiff filed suit to enforce a copyright infringement and breach of contract judgment against individual defendant Payne, his wife and two companies run by Payne after Payne allegedly transferred both personal and corporate assets to his wife. Judge Kennelly denied defendants’ motions to dismiss and for judgment on the pleadings, and deferred ruling on defendants’ motion to stay based on one defendant’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding.

The Court further noted that it previously dismissed defendants’ summary judgment motion for failure to comply with Local Rule 56.1(a).  Once again, the folly of disregarding Local Rule 56.1 is illustrated. When filing for summary judgment in the Northern District of Illinois, you must submit Statements of Material Facts and you must do it according to Local Rule 56.1. Otherwise, you will likely lose the motion without regard to the merits of the case.

For the most part, this case has little to do with intellectual property issues. It does, however, provide a couple of interesting rulings. First, plaintiff’s fraudulent transfer claims, which are presumably brought pursuant to the Illinois Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, 740 ILCS 160/1, are held to federal notice pleading requirements as opposed to Illinois’s more elaborate fact pleading. Second, although one of the corporate defendants is in bankruptcy, the Court did not automatically stay the claims as to that defendant. Instead, the Court deferred ruling on the stay motion until further discovery can shed light upon the bankrupt defendant’s specific role in the allegedly fraudulent transfers.