Source: https://www.chicago-personal-injury-lawyer-blawg.com/illinois_supreme_court_voids_39_million_jury_award_dominic_choate_v_indiana_harbor_belt_co/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 10:59:33+00:00

Document:
According to trial testimony, the plaintiff and his friends had to walk through a torn portion of a chain link fence to get to the train tracks. They also walked past a no-trespassing sign that warned of danger. The plaintiff claimed the defendants failed to adequately fence the area and prevent children from gaining access to their trains or railroad tracks.
Meanwhile, the defendants moved for summary judgment, asserting that they did not owe the plaintiff a legal duty because he trespassed along with his friends. Defense attorneys also said D.C. and his friends should have known that jumping onto a moving train was dangerous.
The circuit court initially granted the defendants’ motion, but vacated the summary judgment on reconsideration to let the jury decide the issue. A jury awarded D.C. $6.5 million, which it reduced to $3.9 million after determining he was 40 percent at fault.
The First District Appellate Court affirmed, spurring the defendants’ appeal to the Supreme Court.
But pointing to the 1965 ruling in Kahn v. James Burton, the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts. In that case, the court recognized that landowners don’t have a duty to maintain their premises for the safety of trespassers as long as they exercise reasonable care to remedy dangerous conditions and protect children from injury.
In his opinion, Freeman wrote that courts after Burton, including those in Cope v. Doe and Corcoran v. Village of Libertyville, explained landowners don’t have a duty to remedy dangerous conditions if they present an obvious risk that children would be expected to understand and avoid.
Instead of following Kahn and its progeny, Freeman wrote that the appellate court in this case relied on La Salle National Bank v. City of Chicago and Engel v. Chicago & North Western Transportation Co.
The courts in these two cases, Freeman wrote, affirmed jury verdicts in favor of minor plaintiffs.
On behalf of the Supreme Court, Freeman noted that the reasoning in Engel and La Salle is inconsistent with Cope and Corcoran and that when it comes to negligence, courts must decide whether the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff.
So the Supreme Court overruled Engel and La Salle, saying that “a moving train is an obvious danger” and that any child allowed at large should realize the risk of coming within the area around it.
“In sum, because plaintiff was a trespasser, defendants owed him no duty of reasonable care, except to refrain from willfully and wantonly injuring him, which plaintiff does not allege,” Freeman wrote.
The case is Dominic Choate v. Indiana Harbor Belt Co., et al., 2012 IL 112948.
Kreisman Law Offices has been handing Illinois train accident lawsuits for more than 36 years for individuals and families in and around Chicago, Cook County, and surrounding areas, including Park Forest, Calumet City, Elmwood Park, Stone Park, Northlake, and Harwood Heights, Ill.

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