In Paulson v. County of De Kalb, 268 Ill. App. 3d 78, 82, 644 N.E.2d 37, 205 Ill. Dec. 821 (1994), the plaintiff sued a county-run nursing home and sought to treble the damages pursuant to section 3--602 of the Nursing Home Care Act (210 ILCS 45/3--602 (West 1994)). The county claimed that section 3--602 was a punitive-damages provision and was therefore inapplicable, because section 2--102 of the Tort Immunity Act (745 ILCS 10/2--102 (West 1994)) prohibited the assessment of punitive damages against a governmental entity. At that time, section 2--102 provided: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a local public entity is not liable to pay punitive or exemplary damages in an action brought directly or indirectly against it by the injured party." 745 ILCS 10/2--102 (West 1994). The Court held that section 2--102 applied to exclude the treble-damages award, explaining that the phrase "n otwithstanding any other provision of law" expressed the legislature's intent "'to clarify the relationship between the Tort Immunity Act and all other statutes or common law actions'" that would permit a contrary result. Paulson, 268 Ill. App. 3d at 82.