(735 ILCS 5/2-616) (from Ch. 110, par. 2-616)
Sec. 2-616.
Amendments.
(a) At any time before final judgment amendments may be allowed on
just and reasonable terms, introducing any party who ought to have been
joined as plaintiff or defendant, dismissing any party,
changing the cause of action or defense or adding new causes
of action or defenses, and in any matter, either of form or substance,
in any process, pleading, bill of particulars or proceedings, which may
enable the plaintiff to sustain the claim for which it was intended to
be brought or the defendant to make a defense or assert a cross claim.
(b) The cause of action, cross claim or defense set up in any
amended pleading shall not be barred by lapse of time under any statute
or contract prescribing or limiting the time within which an action may
be brought or right asserted, if the time prescribed or limited had not
expired when the original pleading was filed, and if it shall appear
from the original and amended pleadings that the cause of action
asserted, or the defense or cross claim interposed in the amended
pleading grew out of the same transaction or occurrence set up in the
original pleading, even though the original pleading was defective in
that it failed to allege the performance of some act or the existence of
some fact or some other matter which is a necessary condition precedent
to the right of recovery or defense asserted, if the condition precedent
has in fact been performed, and for the purpose of preserving
the cause of action, cross claim or defense set up in the
amended pleading, and for that purpose only, an amendment to any
pleading shall be held to relate back to the date of the filing of the
original pleading so amended.
(c) A pleading may be amended at any time, before or after judgment,
to conform the pleadings to the proofs, upon terms as to costs and
continuance that may be just.
(d) A cause of action against a person not originally named a
defendant is not barred by lapse of time under any statute or contract
prescribing or limiting the time within which an action may be brought
or right asserted, if all the following terms and conditions are met:
(1) the time prescribed or limited had not expired when the original
action was commenced; (2) the person, within the time that the action might
have
been brought or the right asserted against him or her plus the time for
service permitted under Supreme Court Rule 103(b),
received such notice of the commencement
of the action that the person will not be prejudiced in maintaining a defense
on the merits and knew or should have known that, but for a mistake concerning
the identity of the proper party, the action would have been brought against
him or her; and (3) it appears
from the original and
amended pleadings that the cause of action asserted in the amended
pleading grew out of the same transaction or occurrence set up in the
original pleading, even though the original pleading was defective in
that it failed to allege the performance of some act or the existence of
some fact or some other matter which is a necessary condition precedent
to the right of recovery when the condition precedent has in fact been
performed, and even though the person was not named originally as a
defendant. For the purpose of preserving the cause of action under those
conditions, an amendment adding the person as a defendant relates back
to the date of the filing of the original pleading so amended.
(e) A cause of action against a beneficiary of a land trust not
originally named a defendant is not barred by lapse of time under any
statute or contract prescribing or limiting the time within which an action
may be brought or right asserted, if all the following terms and conditions
are met: (1) the cause of action arises from the ownership, use or
possession of real estate, record title whereto is held by a land trustee;
(2) the time prescribed or limited had not expired when the original action
was commenced; (3) the land trustee of record is named as a defendant; and
(4) the plaintiff proceeds with reasonable diligence subsequent to the
commencement of the action to serve process upon the land trustee, to
determine the identity of the beneficiary, and to amend the complaint to
name the beneficiary as a defendant.
(f) The changes made by this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly
apply to all complaints filed on or after the effective date of this amendatory
Act, and to complaints filed before the effective date of this amendatory Act
if the limitation period has not ended before the effective date.
(Source: P.A. 92-116, eff. 1-1-02.)
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