ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April 16,
    1987
    KENNETH MCNEIL
    AND
    LIBBY MCNEIL,
    Complainants,
    v.,
    )
    PCB 86—44
    CONTINENTAL GRAIN COMPANY,
    )
    Respondent..
    ORDER OF THE BOARD:
    (by
    J.D..
    Dumelle):
    This matter comes before
    the Board
    on
    a March 24,
    1987
    Motion
    for Reconsideration filed by Respondent Continental Grain
    Company
    (Continental)
    in response to the Board’s March
    19,
    1987
    Order denying Continental’s Motion
    to Dismiss.
    Continental
    alleges that because the Complainants, Kenneth McNeil and Libby
    McNeil (McNeils),
    had personal notice that they were required to
    respond
    to discovery and because the McNeils failed
    thereafter to
    comply, the Motion
    to Dismiss should have been granted..
    On April
    3,
    1987, the McNeils filed with the Board their
    Response to Motion for Reconsideration..
    The McNeils alleged that
    their new attorneys were unaware until March 23,
    1987, that
    a
    response
    to discovery was required, that materials in response to
    discovery had been prepared, and that such materials would be
    available
    for production on or before April
    10,
    1987..
    On April
    10,
    1987, the McNeil’s filed with the Board
    their response
    to
    discovery..
    On April
    9,
    1987, Continental filed with the Board
    a Motion
    for
    Leave to File Reply to Response to Motion
    for Reconsideration
    Instanter..
    The Motion for Leave to File Reply Instanter
    is hereby
    granted.
    Continental argues
    in its Reply that the significant
    issue
    is not whether the McNeils counsel had notice of discovery
    requirements but whether the McNeils had personal notice that
    compliance with discovery was required.
    For the record,
    the Board notes that the discovery process
    has been plagued with delay..
    Continental
    began discovery in May
    of 1986 and, finally,
    on April
    10,
    1987, the McNeils responded.
    In the interim, Continental served several
    requests for
    production on the McNeils’
    former counsel,
    and the Board granted
    Continental’s Motion
    to Compel on December
    5,
    1986.
    In response
    to Continental’s January 23,
    1987 Motion
    to Dismiss,
    the Board,
    on February 19,
    1987 ordered the McNeils
    to show cause as to why
    77-153
    —2—
    the matter should not be dismissed,
    The Board specifically
    directed that
    this Order be personally served on the McNeils.
    The McNeils responded, by letter dated March 10,
    1987 and filed
    March 13,
    1987,
    that they had written to the Board
    in December of
    1986, advising that their former counsel had been replaced, that
    any further correspondence should be directed to them,
    and that
    the only correspondence they had received was the Board’s recent
    order, presumably the Order dated February 19,
    1987..
    The Board,
    however, has no record of any letter sent by the McNeils
    in or
    around December of 1986.
    Further,
    the Board notes that the
    Hearing Officer, on September 23,
    1986, sent a letter
    to the
    McNeils enclosing
    a copy of the September
    19,
    1986 Hearing
    Officer Order requesting response
    to the Interrogatories filed by
    Continental..
    Thus,
    it would appear that the McNeils did have
    notice that a response was
    required..
    Nothwithstanding
    the
    incidences aforementioned,
    the McNeils
    have demonstrated their desire
    to adjudicate the allegations
    contained
    in their complaint by retaining other counsel and by
    responding
    to discovery..
    As responses to discovery have been
    filed,
    the Board
    finds that
    it is
    in the best interests of
    justice and administrative convenience
    to move forward,
    The
    Motion for Reconsideration
    is therefore denied..
    IT IS SO ORDERED..
    I, Dorothy
    M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on the
    /~r~Z~
    ,
    day of
    __________________,
    1987,
    by
    a vote of
    Illionois Pollution Control Board
    77-154

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