Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a warning to users of 15-passenger vans to take specific safety steps in keeping its occupants safe. There had been two recently reported fatal truck crashes, one in New York and one in Georgia involving 15-passenger vans that have rolled over and resulted in ten deaths.

NHTSA has warned that tire maintenance is essential in preventing rollover crashes. Users of 15-passenger vans are cautioned to make sure that the vehicles have appropriately-sized tires that are inflated to the correct level before each trip. NHTSA has also recommended that spare tires not be used as replacements for worn tires. Fifteen-passenger vans have a history of tire wear that necessitates rotation of tires and/or replacement on a regular basis. Many tire manufacturers recommend that tires older than ten years old not be used at all.

Many of these vans are used for church groups, non-profit organizations, colleges and public schools.

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In a recent Illinois auto accident case, a Cook County jury returned a verdict for $190,705 against two defendants who were responsible for the injuries suffered by a mother, Marie Tucker and her daughter Amy, age 8, who was in the back seat of the family car.

On July 8, 2006, the Tucker vehicle was stopped on Western Avenue in the City of Chicago just north of Berwyn Avenue. It was then that the Tucker car was rear-ended by the tow truck being driven by defendant Christopher Maness. The tow truck was owned and maintained by Hollywood Towing Inc. which was also a defendant in this case.

Marie Tucker, age 49, suffered a herniated disk to her lower lumbar spine. Amy, who was seat-belted in the back seat, suffered only minor injuries from the Illinois auto accident.

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In a recent Cook County, Illinois jury trial, an Illinois personal injury verdict was reached against the City of Chicago and in favor of a motorcyclist who suffered severe nerve injuries when he was thrown from his motorcycle on Lake Shore Drive in a collision with a Chicago Police car. Ross v. City of Chicago, 07 L 8907.

The verdict was returned after a 3 day retrial of the case. The jury also found that the man was 10% responsible for causing the motorcycle accident.

The motorcyclist, Brian Ross suffered nerve damage at the cervical region of his spinal cord resulting in the complete loss of motor function and sensation in his left arm and hand.

This Illinois motorcycle accident case was originally filed in 1999 and was initially dismissed by a Cook County trial judge. The dismissal was reversed by the Illinois Appellate Court in 2003 and the case was refiled and tried in May 2010. However, a mistrial was declared and the case had to be retried yet another time.

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Two railroads have been sued following the death of 26 year-old Katie Lunn. Ms. Lunn, was killed when an Amtrak train travelling 70 mph struck her SUV which was stopped on the tracks in heavy traffic. The Illinois train accident took place on Stuenkel Road and Governors Highway in south suburban Monee, Illinois.

The Federal Railroad Administration had determined that before the Illinois train crash, flashing lights, bells and crossing gates had been inadvertently turned off while repairs were being made.

An Illinois train accident lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County claiming negligence on the part of Illinois Central Railroad and Wisconsin Central, Ltd. The two railroads are owned by the Canadian National Railway Company.

Although the federal investigation had cleared Amtrak of any responsibility for causing the incident, Amtrak could still be on the hook to pay for the wrongful death of Ms. Lunn. That may be because Amtrak had an operating agreement with Illinois Central that required it to indemnify and hold harmless Illinois Central against any negligence or fault on the part of Illinois Central or its employees. This is a typical type of indemnification clause found in many cooperating contracts.

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In a second Illinois Supreme Court opinion regarding this case, the court handed down its opinion in Ready v. United/Goedecke, Inc., No. 108910, an important case distinguishing fault apportionment.

The court’s first opinion, Ready I, held that Illinois Code of Civil Procedure Section 2-1117 did not permit the apportionment of fault to defendants who had already settled in the Illinois wrongful death case. Following that Supreme Court decision (Ready I), the case was remanded to the Illinois Appellate Court to consider the defendant’s sole proximate cause defense. The appellate court decided that the lower court had erred in refusing to admit evidence of the conduct of the settling defendants. However, the Illinois Appellate Court did not reach the issue of defendant’s entitlement to a jury instruction on the point.

In this opinion, Ready II, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that the Circuit Court of Cook County was wrong both in excluding the evidence of the actions of the settled defendant, but also it erred in refusing to instruct the jury on sole proximate cause by not giving the second paragraph of Illinois Pattern Instruction, 12.04.

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A recent Cook County medical malpractice lawsuit against Chicago’s Advocate Trinity Hospital received an award of over $3.6 million. The Chicago medical negligence case involved the death of a two-year-old boy and was tried under the principles of res ipsa loquitur.

Res ipsa loquitur is Latin for “the thing speaks for itself” and is used in legal terms to refer to a situation where it’s assumed that an injury, in this case death, is caused by the negligence of another person. Underlying the principle of res ipsa loquitur is the assumption that the accident/injury could not have occurred unless someone was negligent.

In this recent Cook County medical negligence case, the negligence centered on the death of a two-year-old boy. The child was brought to Advocate Trinity Hospital by his parents. Of note was that his mother was an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and his father was a paramedic. The boy was brought to the ER for treatment of his first and only grand mal seizure.

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A Lake County, Illinois jury delivered a $4.5 million verdict in an Illinois personal injury case where a 60 year-old woman suffered injuries when a 67 foot tree fell on her as she was walking her dog near a golf course. This Illinois personal injury verdict is one of the highest in the past 20 years in cases where the injuries were caused by a falling tree. Cathy Stackhouse v. Lakemoor Country Club, Inc. et al., No. 08 L 610.

Cathy Stackhouse claimed that on April 26, 2008, she was walking her dog along the edge of the Lakemoor Country Club golf course property when a tree on the golf course fell on her. The tree limb hit Stackhouse between her shoulder blades that resulted in a fractured vertebrae in her lower back and a broken left ankle. She required surgeries for both injuries.

The jury returned the Illinois premise liability verdict against Lakemoor Country Club, Inc. and a co-defendant Royce Realty & Management Co., Inc. finding each to be 50% responsible. It was argued during the trial that the owner of the country club and its management company were both negligent for having chosen not to take the appropriate steps to inspect their trees along the course property.

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A 17 year-old boy was killed when the four-story city parking garage’s interior metal staircase collapsed. Chris Gaston was found the next morning dead from severe head injuries. Chris Gaston’s father, on behalf of his estate, brought an Illinois personal injury lawsuit against the City of Danville claiming that it had been aware that the staircase was in hazardous condition because of lack of repair, but chose not to correct the defect. Gaston v. City of Danville, 912 N.E.2d 771 (Ill.App. 2009).

It was the opinion of the expert for the Gaston family that the Illinois personal injury occurred when Chris was coming down from the third floor landing midway between the second and third floor is when the wells between the stair stringers to the midway landing broke, causing the stairs to drop downward and hang. This sent Gaston to the landing below. When the welded connection at the third floor landing broke, the entire stair branch slid down the railing striking Gaston on the back of the head.

The evidence in the Illinois personal injury case showed that for more than four years before this incident, a different stair stringer had separated from one of the landings. After a structural engineer inspected the staircase and recommended certain repair options, including repairing and replacing the second floor landing only, no action was taken. A professional engineer than opined that an accumulation of packed rust was weakening the metal and causing broken wells in a number of areas.

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A Cook County jury has determined that the company engaging a torch-cutter is responsible for worker’s wrongful death. The jury verdict was $734,400. Fernando Corral, age 51, was working as a torch-cutter at Mervis Industries, Inc. cutting a portion of a single-deck rail car when a piece of steel fell on him causing his wrongful death. He was survived by his wife and four children.

The family of Mr. Corral brought an Illinois wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the defendant company, Mervis, chose not to make the area where Mr. Corral was working safe, that it should have recognized the hazards involved in torch-cutting work and guarded against those hazards.

The Illinois wrongful death case had a complicated past. A motion for summary judgment was first granted by a trial judge indicating that Mervis did not owe a duty to Corral because he was working for an independent contractor at the time of this incident.

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An Illinois family was decimated by the wrongful death of a 27 year old woman, April Simmons, who was eight months pregnant when the vehicle driven by John Homatas ran head-on into her SUV near South Elgin, Illinois. The Illinois wrongful death lawsuit claimed that the West Chicago strip club, Diamonds Gentlemen’s Club, owned and operated by On Stage Productions, Inc., was negligent when its employees assisted an apparently drunk patron, John Homatas, and his friend into Homatas’s car, Simmons v. Homatas, 236 Ill.2d 459, 925 N.E.2d 1089 (Ill. 2010), and thus was liable for the Illinois car and SUV accident.

The Illinois wrongful death case revolved around the fact that the drunk driver and another man had gotten drunk at the club and were ejected by bouncers. Homatas was seen in the club’s men’s room vomiting. The employees then escorted Homatas and John Chiarello out of the club. The Illinois car crash with woman’s vehicle occurred only fifteen minutes after Homatas left Diamonds. Chiarello was also killed.

The strip club does not serve liquor, but patrons were allowed to bring their own. Because of that fact, Diamonds argued it was not responsible for Homatas’ bad acts. In fact the Illinois wrongful death case had been argued in the circuit court on Diamonds’ motion to dismiss. The motion was denied and an appeal was taken. The review went all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled that the club did make itself accountable for Homatas. The facts were that the bouncers had instructed the valet service to bring around Homatas’ car to the front and left it running for him.

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Contact Information
55 W Monroe St #3700
Chicago, IL 60603
Toll Free: 800.583.8002 Local: 312.346.0045 Fax: 866.618.4198 bob@robertkreisman.com
We serve the following localities: Cook County including Arlington Heights, Barrington, Berwyn Township, Chicago, Des Plaines, Glenview, Orland Park, Palos Park, Schaumburg, and Tinley Park; DuPage County including Downers Grove, Naperville, and Bolingbrook; Kane County including Aurora, Elgin and Geneva; Lake County including Waukegan; and Will County including Joliet.
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