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Illinois objectors who skipped the Section 15 process lost their case on causation

Illinois · Courts

Illinois objectors who skipped the Section 15 process lost their case on causation

What happened. On October 15, 2025 the Illinois Appellate Court, Third District, issued its order in Kai v. Board of Directors of Spring Hill Building 6 Condominium Ass'n, Inc., 2025 IL App (3d) 240277-U. It is a Rule 23 order and is not precedential, and it carried a dissent. The Illinois Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on January 28, 2026, No. 132496.1

The allegation was serious: board members who were also principals of the purchasing entity in a Section 15 forced bulk sale did not disclose their interest in the buyer, or a 2016 appraisal.

What the court accepted

Two things, and both are favourable to owners.

Board members owe fiduciary duties under 765 ILCS 605/18.4. And — quoting the earlier Kai, 2020 IL App (2d) 190642 — “nothing in section 15 supplants board members' common law duty to act as unit owners' fiduciaries.”

So a Section 15 sale is not a fiduciary-free zone, and self-interest must be disclosed. That is the law.

Why the plaintiff lost anyway

On proximate cause, not on the propriety of the conduct.

The disclosure failures could not have caused her loss because she and every co-plaintiff voted against the sale anyway. Knowing more would not have changed a vote already cast in opposition.

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Related Illinois HOA Topics

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  1. Kai v. Board of Directors of Spring Hill Building 6 Condominium Ass'n, 2025 IL App (3d) 240277-U (Rule 23 order, October 15, 2025) ↩
  2. Illinois Supreme Court, petitions for leave to appeal dispositions (No. 132496 denied January 28, 2026) ↩

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