Articles Posted in Auto Accidents

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The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed a defense verdict in a multi-vehicle crash on an icy Indiana highway that caused severe injuries to motorists. The big issue in the case was which state’s law should be applied at a Cook County Circuit Court jury trial.

On Dec. 26, 2007, Clifford Ruse, a truck driver for Harvey, Ill.-based Envirite of Illinois Inc. was driving eastbound on Interstate 80/94 in Hammond, Ind., when he was struck by an SUV whose driver had lost control on a patch of black ice.

Ruse swerved his truck to the left and hit the highway’s median wall. On impact, the container of mill dust in tow was detached from his truck and that container crossed into the westbound lanes of the interstate highway. The plaintiff in the case, Daniel Kovera, was one of several drivers injured when the container landed on their cars. In March 2008, Kovera and his wife filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill.

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On May 8, 2011, Mason Brandstedter was driving on Route 59 in West Chicago, Ill., around 1:30 a.m. It was then that he discovered what appeared to be a dog, which was lying on the road and had clearly been injured. Brandstedter, 21, stopped his car facing southbound in the median turn lane and exited his car to see if he could help what amounted to a dying dog. Brandstedter recognized the dog and thought it belonged to a friend. Brandstedter and the dog were both partially in the northbound left lane and partly in the center turn lane.

Brandstedter was crouched down next to the dog talking on his cell phone with the dog’s owner, who Brandstedter knew, and with his back to approaching northbound traffic. He was hit by the defendant Richard Aubert’s car, which was northbound.

Brandstedter suffered a partially torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and a partially torn labrum in his right hip, both of which required arthroscopic surgery. In addition to $85,776 in past medical expenses, he lost six months of work as a cabinet maker because of his injuries.

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In the early morning hours of April 19, 2010, Chantel Jobes was driving a vehicle alone and left the southbound lane of Highway 11, crossed the northbound lane and crashed into a concrete railroad trestle. Jobes was seriously injured and filed a lawsuit against the Norfolk Southern Railway Co., the Mississippi Transportation Commission and the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The trial judge denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The Supreme Court of Mississippi granted the defendants’ request for an interlocutory appeal and that court entered summary judgment in their favor.

Jobes was working at TGI Fridays in Hattiesburg, Miss., when she started her shift as the manager at 4 p.m. on April 18, 2010. She finished her shift at approximately 1:30 a.m. the morning of April 19 and then went directly to a 24/7 gym nearby to work out, which was her normal routine. After about an hour at the gym, she headed to a friend’s house to celebrate his birthday. She does not remember the party, but her friends told her that she “didn’t want to finish the cocktail drink [she] had,” and she wanted to go home.

Jobes left the birthday party and drove toward her home. The crash described above occurred about 4:42 a.m. on April 19. The weather was clear and dry, and the crash injuries were life-threatening. Jobes was driving with a suspended license and was legally intoxicated and also had prescription anti-anxiety medication in her system. Jobes testified at her deposition that she had worked 3 straight weeks without a day off up until the crash. She could not remember a time when she had been more stressed.

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The Illinois Appellate Court has reversed a summary judgment order that was entered by a Cook County judge in favor of Safeway Insurance Co. In this case, Jeffrey and Stephanie Hadary were injured in a car crash when Carlos Velez was driving a car he rented from Hertz Corp. The Hadarys claimed that they had suffered injuries that amounted to damages in excess of $40,000, which was the insurance limits of Velez’s insurance carrier, American Access Casualty Co., which had limits of $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident. The Hadarys reportedly declined to buy the “liability insurance supplement” when they rented the car from Hertz.

Under Illinois’ financial responsibility law, Hertz was bound to provide a bond, an insurance policy or certificate of self-insurance that promised to pay judgments against its customers and anyone driving a Hertz vehicle with a customer’s consent. Section 9-105 of the Illinois Vehicle Code required Hertz to provide this liability coverage with limits of (a) $50,000 for injury to one person or damage to property and (b) $100,000 for injuries to two or more persons.

After American Access paid its $40,000 policy limits to Hadarys, who paid $57 as a premium for underinsured motorist coverage from Safeway Insurance Co. with limits of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence, they alleged that Velez was an underinsured motorist.

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On May 9, 2009, Christopher Billmann, 27, was stopped on Route 176 in Island Lake, Ill., when his car was rear-ended by the defendant Brian Freeman in what was described as a violent impact. Billmann sustained a lumbosacral sprain, soft tissue injuries and a bulging disc. Billmann claimed to have received $16,181 in medical bills, which were unpaid.

The defendant Freeman admitted negligence but disputed the nature and extent of Billmann’s alleged injuries. Billmann’s treating physicians opined that Billmann suffered a lumbosacral sprain that turned chronic. Another doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, testified that Billmann’s bulging disc was due to the trauma, since Billmann had no prior symptoms. He required an MRI and an injection for the pain derived from the bulging disc.

The defendant Freeman brought his own expert orthopedic surgeon to the jury trial who offered the opinion that Billmann suffered a self-limiting lumbosacral sprain, which required only six to eight visits to a chiropractor or physical therapist and that all other treatment was unnecessary and unreasonable.

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On Aug. 6, 2011, the car driven by Mi Suk Park rear-ended Patricia LaBeck’s car on Rand Road in Deer Park, Ill. The great force of the crash caused the Park airbags to deploy, caused LaBeck’s sunglasses to come off and prompted LaBeck’s daughter’s shoes and headband to come off.

LaBeck was a 40-year-old homemaker at the time. She was taken by ambulance to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill., where she was diagnosed with a concussion and lumbar strain/sprain.

She returned to the emergency room two days after the crash for severe dizziness and headaches. She had feared that she had suffered a more severe head injury, but the concussion diagnosis was confirmed.

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On Nov. 25, 2008, Thomas J. Hagerman was driving westbound on Route 6 in Morris, Ill., when the defendant, Betty Leake, who was attempting to make a left turn onto Lisbon Street, chose not to yield the right-of-way. Instead, Leake turned directly in front of Hagerman’s truck, causing Hagerman to T-bone her vehicle.

Hagerman was 43 years old at the time and suffered injuries to his cervical and thoracic spine, which resulted in a three-level cervical discectomy and fusion surgeries. He lost one year of work as a security guard and warehouse worker.

Hagerman was able to return to his job, but later underwent two bilateral knee replacements unrelated to the crash. He has not been able to work since the knee replacement surgeries.

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Ann E. Guiffrida’s personal injury case against the owner of a bar called The Palace in downstate Hamburg, Ill., was dismissed because the plaintiff had mixed up the names of two corporations. One was The Palace Inc. and the other was Boothy’s Palace Tavern Inc.

Guiffrida filed a lawsuit in the federal district of the Central District of Illinois naming the defendant The Palace Inc. When venue was challenged, Hamburg, Ill., located on the Mississippi River, 80 miles north of St. Louis, is in the Southern District of Illinois, not the Central District. Guiffrida voluntarily dismissed the federal case and then filed the state claim in Madison County, Ill., although Hamburg is actually in Calhoun County, Ill.

When Guiffrida found out that she should have sued and served Boothy’s Palace Tavern Inc., she argued that this was merely a case of misidentifying the correct name or a misnomer that is covered by Section 2-401 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure. Rather than a mistake of the identify by the defendant, which would have required Guiffrida to satisfy Section 2-616(d) as to relating back, the judge in Madison County concluded that the mix-up fell within the category of misnomer.

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On June 23, 2009, Ramon Ortiz was driving northbound on Sacramento Boulevard and stopped at a red light at the intersection of Chicago Avenue in Chicago, Ill. When the light turned green, he started into the intersection and his car was hit by the defendant’s car. Richard Sakre was driving his car westbound. Ortiz alleged in his lawsuit that Sakre ran the red light, which caused the collision.

Ortiz was 44 and suffered three cervical disc herniation/protrusions at C4-5, C5-6 and C6-7. He also sustained a torn left rotator cuff, which was caused or aggravated by this crash. He was treated with steroid injections and physical therapy and then became symptom-free six months after the accident.

Ortiz’s medical bills totaled $55,348. He missed a week of work as a commercial roofing driver.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago has dismissed an appeal from a U.S. District Court judge. In an extremely sad case, Robert Lindner’s parents, Burton and Zorine Lindner, were driving under a bridge near north suburban Glenview, Ill., when a Union Pacific freight train derailed overhead. The derailment caused the collapse of the bridge crushing the Lindners in their car. Their son brought a lawsuit against Union Pacific and a wrongful death action in Illinois state court alleging that Union Pacific’s negligence caused the accident and his parents’ wrongful deaths.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, there was complete diversity between the parties. That means that the residencies of the plaintiffs and the residencies of the defendants must be of different states. The decedents were residents and citizens of Illinois. The residency determines diversity jurisdiction. Mr. Lindner was acting as a representative of the estate.

Union Pacific is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Omaha, Neb. Union Pacific removed the case to the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago because of the complete diversity of the parties.

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