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Bankruptcy: Business Owner Search

County Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman Files For Bankruptcy

County commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman files for bankruptcy

County Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman (R-Orland Park) has filed for bankruptcy, just days after winning re-election to a third term.

Gorman lists assets of about $1.15 million and said she owes creditors some $13.5 million. A significant amount of the debt pertains to a former car dealership in Midlothian that Gorman owned with her husband, Gerald. He filed for bankruptcy in August.

In the filing, Elizabeth Gorman says her average monthly income is about $6,500, while the household’s average monthly expenses approach $13,000. Cook County commissioners are paid $85,000 a year.

Elizabeth Gorman told the Sun-Times the timing of her filing had nothing to do with the election. Rather, she said, it was the discovery this week that her husband had some “serious” heart problems – including three blocked arteries and damage that revealed a recent heart attack. The discovery prompted the couple to meet with their attorney and proceed with her bankruptcy filing.

Gorman said her husband underwent a procedure to put a stent in one artery and is expected to undergo another surgical procedure next week.

“We had to file. If something happened during these operations, I would have been stuck with his debt,” she said, explaining it would leave her and their three sons – ages 17 and younger – financially destitute.

“This was done so the incurred debt wouldn’t be laying on my shoulders,” Gorman said. “There’s nothing conspiratorial about it.”

The couple used to sell Chryslers on Chicago’s Southwest Side and Dodges in Midlothian. They’re facing two foreclosure suits involving their home, with two banks claiming they’re owed $4 million. In one complaint, the house was pledged as collateral on a business loan.

In October 2006, DaimlerChrysler Financial Services won a $4.2 million judgment against the couple related to financing of new vehicles provided to the Midlothian dealership, which they jointly owned. None of the judgment has been paid.

Chrysler Financial had also accused the couple of improperly using dealership funds for personal expenses, including making six loans in 2002, totaling almost $400,000, to Elizabeth Gorman’s campaign for county board. An effort by the lender to recoup some of that money is still under way in federal court in Chicago.

In a written opinion Sept. 2, U.S. Magistrate Arlander Keys

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