Melahn v. Chicago Pneumatic Tool

SPINDEN, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from the order of the circuit court allowing the late-filing of policy*391holder protection claims by Chicago Pneumatic Tools (CPT) in the liquidation proceedings of Transit Casualty Company. The circuit court set a deadline of December 31, 1987, for filing claims. CPT filed a claim in April 1989 and attempted to excuse its tardiness on the ground that it was too busy fighting a hostile takeover to be aware that Transit was its insurer until after the deadline.

The commissioner of claims initially denied CPT’s claims but later reversed this determination…