Articles Posted in Premises Liability

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The U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago has affirmed a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissing a lawsuit against a Wal-Mart store for injuries suffered by Kristen Zuppardi. She went to the Wal-Mart store in Champaign, Ill., with her brother and her son on June 15, 2010. When she entered the store, Ms. Zuppardi took a shopping cart from the front of the store and then walked down one of the main aisles of the store. Ms. Zuppardi was on her way to the back of the store to purchase milk. As she was walking down the aisle she slipped and fell in a puddle of water on the store’s concrete floors. She filed a complaint against Wal-Mart in state court in June 2012. The case was removed to the Federal District Court by Wal-Mart for diversity of citizenship jurisdiction.

One of the Wal-Mart store’s assistant managers, George Steward, stated that he did not witness the fall, but that he knew that because the fall occurred in close proximity to the store’s back doors, Wal-Mart personnel would have promptly dealt with the puddle even if the plaintiff had not fallen.

Wal-Mart was unable to locate the customer’s incident file of this occurrence and was accordingly incapable of producing any documents related to the investigation other than five photographs depicting the location of the fall and a report submitted to Wal-Mart’s casualty claims administrator. There was no video footage available.

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A lawsuit was filed against the Chicago Zoological Society, which operates Brookfield Zoo, on land owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District. The case was filed by Kristine O’Toole for injuries that she suffered when she fell because of an alleged defect in the pavement.

The defendant, the Chicago Zoological Society, which is a not-for-profit corporation, moved to dismiss the lawsuit under the Illinois Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, which includes a shortened statute of limitations — that being one-year rather than two years for the usual tort claim. The shortened one-year deadline applies to “any not-for-profit corporation organized for the purpose of conducting public business.”

The Cook County judge granted the motion dismissing O’Toole’s case because she had not filed the lawsuit within the one-year statute of limitations from the date of her injury that the judge decided applied. She took an appeal claiming that the defendant did not qualify as a “local public entity” that would impose the one-year statute.

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In a case that has been labeled one of first impression, the wife of a victim of mesothelioma has prevailed after the defendant, Tennessee Valley Authority, moved to dismiss the case. The case was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Barbara Bobo brought this lawsuit against nine defendants, eight of whom were dismissed pursuant to stipulation for dismissal leaving only her claim against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The plaintiffs were the co-personal representatives of the estate of Barbara Bobo who maintained a variety of claims against the TVA based on her contraction of pleural mesothelioma from washing her husband’s work clothes. It was alleged that the work clothes contained asbestos dust originating from his job duties at TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Power General Facility in Limestone County, Ala.

In this case, the principle issue was the causation of her contraction of mesothelioma. Before the court was a motion to exclude specific causation opinions of doctors. The motion to exclude the specific causation opinion was found to be moot and the motion to exclude specific causation opinion of another doctor was denied.

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A nationally recognized art critic and historian, Gerald J. Nordlund, visited the Art Institute of Chicago at 111 S. Michigan Avenue on Sept. 5, 2009. He was 82 at the time. After leaving the Art Institute, Nordland stepped onto a retaining wall, which separated the sidewalk along Columbus Drive from a driveway serving the Modern Wing at the east side of the museum.

Nordland alleged that the height differential between the top of the retaining wall and the adjoining sidewalk caused him to fall as he attempted to step back down to the sidewalk. He struck his head and suffered facial injuries and a subdural hematoma and permanent sight loss.

The defendant, Interactive Design Inc., argued that the design of the retaining wall met the architectural standard of care and that Nordland’s contributory negligence was the proximate cause of his fall. The defense at trial also denied that his vision loss was related to this occurrence.

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Stephen Wolkoff, 65, rented a self-storage unit from Sunshine Storage Inc. There was a loft storage unit above Wolkoff’s storage unit. The floor of the loft comprised the ceiling of Wolkoff’s storage unit. When Wolkoff was inside his unit, the ceiling above him collapsed crushing him beneath 3,000 pounds of material.

Wolkoff suffered a fractured pelvis, ruptured urethra and nerve damage to both of his legs. Wolkoff underwent open reduction surgery and reconstruction of his entire pelvis, procedures to reconnect his urethra and implant an artificial sphincter to drain his bladder and surgery to repair nerve damage in his legs.

Wolkoff also required a colostomy and wore the bag for three years. In addition, Wolkoff suffered complications, including infections to both ankles. Blood loss from the injuries caused permanent vision loss in his left eye and partial loss in his right eye. Wolkoff’s medical expenses totaled $3.2 million.

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On June 4, 2008, 70-year-old Edward Wasik, a retired school teacher, was a customer at Ridgeway Chevrolet, an automobile dealer located in Lansing, Ill. Wasik was walking behind the service bays in the service department when he was struck by a car backing out of the service bay.

The car that hit Wasik was driven by the defendant, Barry Boer, a mechanic at the dealership. Boer was operating another customer’s car, but apparently was looking forward while moving in reverse. Boer struck Wasik with that customer’s car, injuring him.

Wasik sustained injuries to his lower back, ribs and left knee, which resulted in arthroscopic surgery, physical therapy and continuing injections to the left knee as well as physical therapy to his back.

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Carolyn Catchot slipped and fell at a shopping mall called the Shops at North Bridge in December 2008. She claimed that she had not noticed water on the floor before she fell, but as she lay there she found her hands and pants were damp with water and noticed a maintenance worker holding a mop and a bucket nearby.

A housekeeper for UNNICO, Sead Hodzic, was responsible for patrolling the area of the mall where Catchot fell. Hodzic’s rounds would have taken him through the area about 10 minutes before the fall and again about 2 minutes before it. As was his practice, after he passed through the area, he walked about 60 feet farther to the end and then returned and noticed Catchot on the floor.

Catchot filed a lawsuit against UNNICO, which was the maintenance and janitorial service for the mall. She also named as a defendant Macerich Management Co., which manages the mall. Catchot claimed in her lawsuit that both defendants were negligent in their maintenance of the premises and that their negligence was the cause of her injuries.

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Julie Abrams was injured at the Oak Lawn-Homewood Middle School on April 19, 2012 during a ceremony inducting her as a member of the National Junior Honor Society. Julie fell at the program because of an allegedly “dark, non-illuminated, elevated, unmarked, uneven surface.” Julie required shoulder surgery as a result and expended $35,800 in medical bills for that injury.

In a lawsuit brought by Julie’s family against Oak Lawn-Homewood Middle School, it was contended that the cafeteria/auditorium — known as the Cafetorium — was “public property intended or permitted to be used for recreational purposes” under Section 3-106 of the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act. The school asked that the Cook County Circuit Court judge dismiss Julie’s negligence case because of tort immunity. The trial judge denied the school district’s motion, but certified the question for immediate appeal.

This was the question presented to the Illinois Appellate Court for answering: “Where an injury occurs on an area of public property which has both recreational and non-recreational purposes, should Section 3-106 immunity apply when said area is located within a public school where the primary character of the area and overall facility is educational and non-recreational?”

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Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson was injured in 2012 at the Seminole Indian Tribe Casino when he fell from the back of its stage at the Tribe’s South Florida casino. 

Robinson was appearing at a fundraiser for the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.  When Robinson, 76, was on the stage, he fell 12 feet at the back of the stage where it had no back railing. 

The attorney representing Robinson, Jack Hickey, indicated that a settlement demand of $9.9 million would end the threatened lawsuit.  The Seminole Indian Tribe Casino has immunity protection, which generally limits damages to no more than $200,000 for an individual who is injured at its facility. 

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In a case lawyers usually refer to as a slip and fall matter, Virginia Bruns sued the City of Centralia when she fell on a raised section of a public sidewalk while going to an eye clinic.  The city’s records showed that the roots of a nearby tree caused the sidewalk to crack and another person had tripped at the same place. 

The eye clinic also had reported the condition to the City of Centralia and offered to remove the tree on its own.  The city’s tree committee refused the clinic’s offer due to the historic significance of the tree, even though the danger was open and obvious.  It was reasonably foreseeable that a patron of the clinic might be distracted while walking to the clinic. 

Under the circumstances, the question for the Illinois Supreme Court is whether the city’s alleged breach of its duty of reasonable care should have been a fact question to be determined by a jury. 

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