Chicago-area Teamsters local loses $2.3M appeal over Des Plaines lease

A state appeals court has upheld a judgment of more than $2.3 million over a broken office lease against a Teamsters Union local that represents more than 10,000 government employees in the Chicago area.

But the appellate justices decided that longtime Teamsters boss John Coli Sr. - a former key ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner now facing unrelated federal extortion charges - wasn't personally liable.

Leaders of Teamsters Local 726 had a 15-year, rent-to-own deal on an office building at 1550 Mount Prospect Road in Des Plaines. But the Teamsters International in Washington, D.C., dissolved Local 726, and its members became part of a new Local 700, which broke the lease in 2010, after just a year, and moved its offices to Park Ridge.

Another Teamsters group headed by Coli had just bought the Park Ridge building, where Coli's sister Susan Fosco was the property manager.

Local 700 leaders argued that the lease for the Des Plaines building wasn't binding on them and stopped paying rent. The owner of the building - 1550 MP Road LLC - sued Teamsters Local 700 and Coli in 2010 over the broken lease and ultimately won.

For the full story, click here.