2026-09-10 · Illinois · Courts

What happened. On July 17, 2026 the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, Fifth Division, issued 4310-4322 N. Clarendon Condominium Ass'n v. Klein, 2026 IL App (1st) 252082 — a published, precedential opinion.¹

The question was new and the answer is clean: does a circuit-court indigency fee waiver under 735 ILCS 5/5-105 protect a unit owner from an award of the association's attorney fees under Section 9.2(b) of the Condominium Property Act and the declaration?

No.

The reasoning

The fee-waiver provision of the Code of Civil Procedure reaches only fees and costs the court would charge the litigant. It does not extend to fees awarded to an opposing party.

The court addressed the obvious policy objection directly — that it is absurd to waive a $250 appearance fee and then impose $25,000 in fees — and rejected it: “There is nothing in the language or history or purpose of that provision that suggests it is to be extended to insulate indigent litigants from liability that they could have to an opposing party.”

Main, 2020 IL App (2d) 200131, which concerned transcript costs, was distinguished.

The underlying case

The association sued Klein for nuisance and multiple declaration violations, won summary judgment, and was awarded $23,375.50 in fees plus $521.73 in costs under 765 ILCS 605/9.2(b) and the declaration — a judgment of $23,897.23.

1. 4310-4322 N. Clarendon Condominium Ass'n v. Klein, 2026 IL App (1st) 252082 (published opinion, July 17, 2026) ↩
2. 765 ILCS 605/9.2, Condominium Property Act, attorney fees ↩