Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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Marbella Smilovitz, 51, brought her car to the defendant McGrath City Honda for repairs to fix a flat tire.  It was July 31, 2010.  The dealership is located at 6720 W. Grand Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 

The McGrath employees brought Smilovitz to her car in the service area to show her the flat tire while her car was raised up about 6 feet on a hydraulic lift.  Smilovitz then asked an employee to lower the car so she could take out her cell phone from the center console. She stood next to the car as it was being lowered. One of the employees of McGrath claimed that he was standing next to Smilovitz and planned to get her phone for her once the car reached the floor. However, she started stepping toward the car before the lift had fully reached the ground and her left big toe was pinched under the arm of the metal hydraulic lift. 

Smilovitz sustained a degloving injury to the tip of her big toe with loss of skin and toenail requiring skin grafting. There was permanent scarring on the end of her toe. She had $63,977 in medical expenses.

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The amendment to the Illinois Vehicle Code expands the existing ban on e-mailing while driving.  The new act goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. The law prohibits the use of all electronic communication devices while driving with a few narrow exceptions. 

Except for hands-free telephone use, GPS navigation, CB and Ham radios and emergency situations, Illinois drivers will be prohibited from using electronic communication devices.  This would obviously include handheld mobile telephones, texting and e-mailing. 

The new law reads this way:  A person may not operate a motor vehicle on a roadway while using an electronic communication device.  The Public Act 98-0506  originally contained words at the end of the current act that read: “. . . to compose, send or read an electronic message.” The way the law is written now, there should be no confusion.

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On April 10, 2010, Daniel Coile, 33, went to Shepherd’s Closet, a store, to pick up a desk purchased by his mother. Coile was told that he would need to load the desk into his car by way of a loading dock at the rear of the store.  Shepherd’s Closet or Closet Two is located in Gibson City, Ill.

At the loading dock there was an unsecured railroad tie that went along the face of the dock. While Coile was attempting to load the desk, he placed his left foot on the railroad tie to get closer to the dock, but the tie slid as he lifted the desk causing his left knee to twist.

Coile suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee and required reconstructive surgery and physical therapy. As a result of his injury, Coile was unable to work for 4 months as a deputy sheriff.

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On July 31, 2008, a multi-car collision occurred in which the car driven by Gregory Mlot rear-ended the vehicle in front of him driven by Michael Dervin.  Wendy Palacios was a passenger in Dervin’s car.  It was alleged that the Dervin vehicle then rear-ended the vehicle in front of him, a Jeep driven by Lavita Gayle. 

Palacios filed a lawsuit for her injuries against Mlot, his employer, DMD Services, and Dervin. Dervin then filed a lawsuit for his injuries against Mlot and DMD Services. The cases were consolidated. 

In the answer filed by Mlot and DMD Services, they raised affirmative defenses of Dervin’s contributory negligence. 

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The Illinois Appellate Court weighed the application of the Illinois Health-Care Services Lien Act in an underinsured-motorist case. On Nov. 5, 2009, in Murphysboro, Ill., a car driven by Lori Maramba crossed the center line and struck a vehicle driven by David McRoberts. Caitlyn McRoberts and Kim McRoberts were passengers with David McRoberts, all of whom suffered injuries and damages. The defendant had a liability insurance coverage limit of $50,000. The McRoberts family collected all of that and additionally made claim under their underinsured-motorist benefits policy. The underinsurance allowed for the payment of an additional $50,000 to the McRoberts family.

The medical bills paid to the McRoberts family exceeded the settlement. That included the payment of both the tortfeasor’s insurance policy and the McRoberts family’s underinsurance policy.The total amount of the medical bills incurred was in excess of $321,000. 

Several of the health-care providers filed liens in compliance with the Health-Care Services Lien Act. The plaintiffs, the McRoberts family, filed a petition to adjudicate the medical liens on Dec. 1, 2011. The trial court held a hearing on the petition on Dec. 9, 2011. The trial judge allowed for application of the Health-Care Services Lien Act wherein 40% of the settlement amount of both the underlying tortfeasor insurance policy and the underinsurance were applied at 40% of the settlement. That means 40% of the $50,000 of the underinsurance policy was also distributed in proportional shares to the lien holders who had filed appearances with the court.

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This case was brought before a jury panel twice. These were the facts:  On Sept. 6, 2006, Michael Lynn was bicycling on the sidewalk facing eastbound on the southwest corner of 33rd Street and Wentworth Avenue in Chicago when he was struck by the defendant’s car driven by James Miller. Miller had been driving southbound on Wentworth with a green light when he swerved to avoid another bicyclist who ran a red light on westbound 33rd Street.  This caused Miller to lose control, jump the curb and hit a tree.

Lynn, 21, who was entirely without fault, sustained a closed head injury, loss of consciousness, traumatic brain injury, four-part comminuted fracture of the left shoulder which was unoperated and bruises.

Lynn was taken by ambulance to Stroger Hospital in Chicago, where he suffered respiratory arrest, was intubated and was sedated in a four-day induced coma. 

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Heike Wehrle and Robert Wehrle were severely injured in an auto crash with a drunk driver who had minimal insurance coverage.  The Wehrles had an underinsured motorist insurance policy with Cincinnati Insurance Co. that paid the difference between their $1 million coverage limit and the $200,000 that they received from the at-fault driver. 

The Wehrles sued Cincinnati claiming that they were entitled to the full $1 million of underinsurance rather than $800,000, which was the difference between the $1 million provided by Cincinnati and the $200,000 provided by the insurance company for the tortfeasor drunk driver.

The Wehrles were driving their sport-utility vehicle in Kane County, Ill., in December 2010.  They were hit by a drunk driver, Eric Barth. The Wehrles were severely injured and their medical expenses and damages far exceeded the policy limits of either Barth’s insurance or their own underinsurance policy. 

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Pedestrian Eusebio Camacho was struck and injured when crossing midblock at night by defendant Michael Lynch’s eastbound car. Camacho received a $56,803 verdict although a 50 percent comparative fault reduction was entered by the jury. 

The accident occurred on Oct. 12, 2010 when Camacho was walking northbound across Irving Park Road in Chicago in the middle of the block at night. He was hit by Lynch’s car. The car had crossed over the double yellow median lines as Lynch was trying to gain access to the left-turn lane. 

Camacho, 44, suffered a fractured tibia and torn rotator cuff.  He lost four months of work as Walgreen’s store manager. 

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Dorma Lawson, age 59, was driving northbound on Western Avenue in Chicago Heights, Ill., when she stopped to make a left turn into a bank parking lot north of Lincoln Highway. Lawson’s car was then rear-ended by a Kickert school bus. Lawson claimed that she sustained soft tissue injuries to her neck, back and left knee. She had arthroscopic knee surgery, which showed that she did not have a torn meniscus.

Lawson is on disability due to a hip injury alleged to have been caused by this crash. The defendant bus driver, Patricia Savage, age 34, claimed that Lawson made a sudden stop and did not use her left turn signal. This, Savage said, was the cause of the crash. 

The defendants also argued that the impact was very minor. Defendants maintained that Lawson was not injured to the extent that she claimed, and that her disability was unrelated to the crash.

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A Cook County jury returned a $21,762 verdict for a 68-year-old man who was stopped at a red light on southbound Harlem Avenue at Jackson Boulevard in Chicago. Tehudulio Roman was waiting for the traffic light to change when his car was rear-ended by the defendant, 18-year-old Daniel Garcia, in a high-force impact crash.

Roman was unable to drive from the scene and his wife came to drive him and the car back to their home. 

Roman began treatment one week after the crash, and was diagnosed with disc protrusions at L4-5 and L5-S1.  This required Roman to undergo six months of physical therapy.

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