Opinion ID: 2215737
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: ICG's Procedures

Text: The plaintiff also contends that, even if the law imposed no duty on ICG to take affirmative action to aid Carl, such a duty was created by ICG's own procedures. The plaintiff points to no written policy manual or handbook as the source for this contention, but relies on the trial testimony of ICG employees. Specifically, the plaintiff points to testimony from various ICG employees to the effect that, where a person was reported injured in a warming house, the procedure was to send both the local municipality's police and an ICG patrolman to the scene. As ICG points out, the testimony as to ICG's procedure was far from clear, with some testimony indicating that the procedure was to send an ICG patrolman if he was available and, if he was unavailable, to send the local police. Regardless, even if the plaintiff's interpretation of ICG's procedure is accepted, the plaintiff's contention fails. Whether a legal duty exists is a question of law and is determined by reference to whether the parties stood in such a relationship to each other that the law imposes an obligation on one to act for the protection of the other. Gouge, 144 Ill.2d at 542, 163 Ill.Dec. 842, 582 N.E.2d 108. Where the law does not impose a duty, one will not generally be created by a defendant's rules or internal guidelines. Rather, it is the law which, in the end, must say what is legally required. See Blankenship v. Peoria Park District, 269 Ill.App.3d 416, 422, 207 Ill.Dec. 325, 647 N.E.2d 287 (1994) (park district's internal rules requiring one lifeguard to remain on duty at all times did not create a legal duty to have one lifeguard on duty); Fillpot v. Midway Airlines, Inc., 261 Ill. App.3d 237, 244, 198 Ill.Dec. 775, 633 N.E.2d 237 (1994) (where airline owed no legal duty to remove snow or ice, airline's policy manual requiring the clearing of walkways did not create such a duty); Mattice v. Goodman, 173 Ill.App.3d 236, 240, 123 Ill.Dec. 6, 527 N.E.2d 469 (1988) (where building owners owed no legal duty to assist elderly person through door, no such duty was created by building owner's employment of an employee who, in accordance with his job description, customarily assisted elderly persons through the door); Quinn v. Sigma Rho Chapter of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, 155 Ill.App.3d 231, 238, 107 Ill.Dec. 824, 507 N.E.2d 1193 (1987). The only case cited by the plaintiff in support of this contention is Darling v. Charleston Community Memorial Hospital, 33 Ill.2d 326, 211 N.E.2d 253 (1965). Darling, however, does not support the proposition that a legal duty, which does not otherwise exist, may be created by a defendant's internal policies or procedures. Whether a duty was owed by the defendant was not the issue in Darling, a medical malpractice case. Rather, the issue was whether evidence in the form of the defendant hospital's bylaws could be introduced on the question of the proper standard of care required to satisfy the duty. Darling, 33 Ill.2d at 331, 211 N.E.2d 253. It was there held that such evidence was admissible, but not conclusive, on the issue of the appropriate standard of care. Darling, 33 Ill.2d at 331, 211 N.E.2d 253. Darling is therefore inapplicable to this case. Accordingly, we decline to hold that any ICG procedure created a duty on ICG's part to provide aid to Carl where the law did not otherwise impose such a duty.