Court Opinion

ID: 9721881
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:11:39.629248+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:06:01.619314
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE CLARK, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree with the majority that the Authority, as landlord, has no common law duty to protect a tenant or social guest from criminal acts. I disagree with its conclusion that the Authority has no statutory duty to do so. Hence, I dissent in part. I believe the Authority is commanded by the legislature to exercise reasonable care to protect tenants and others (including licensees and invitees), lawfully on the premises owned or operated by the Authority, from foreseeable criminal acts. (Contra, Annot., 43 A.L.R.3d 331, 344 (1972). But see 1 J. Dooley, Modern Tort Law 385 (1977) (hereafter Dooley).) In the Housing Authorities Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 6714, pars. 1 et seq.) (hereafter Act) the legislature provided for the creation of a “housing authority” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 6714, par. 3) which “shall be a municipal corporation and shall constitute a body both corporate and politic, exercising public and essential governmental functions, and having all the powers necessary or convenient to carry out and effectuate the purposes and provisions of this Act, including, in addition to others herein granted, the powers enumerated in Sections 8.1 through 8.8, inclusive.” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 671/2, par. 8.) (See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 6714, pars. 8.1, 8.2.) The public policy of this State, as well as the purposes of the Act, are clearly set out in section 2 of the Act: “It is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination that in order to promote and protect the health, safety, morals and welfare of the public, it is necessary in the public interest to provide for the creation of municipal corporations to be known as housing authorities, and to confer upon and vest in said housing authorities all powers necessary or appropriate in order that they may engage in low-rent housing and slum clearance projects, and undertake such land assembly, clearance, rehabilitation, development, and redevelopment projects as will tend to relieve the shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings; and that the powers herein conferred upon the housing authorities including the power to acquire and dispose of improved or unimproved property, to remove unsanitary or substandard conditions, to construct and operate housing accommodations, to regulate the maintenance of housing projects and to borrow, expend, loan, invest, and repay monies for the purposes herein set forth, are public objects and governmental functions essential to the public interest.” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 6714, par. 2.) Section 24 is also relevant: “It is hereby declared to be the policy of this State that each housing authority shall manage and operate its housing projects in an efficient manner so as to enable it to fix the rentals for dwellings at the lowest possible rates consistent with its providing decent, safe and sanitary dwellings, and that no housing Authority shall construct or operate any such project for profit, or as a source of revenue to a city, village, incorporated town or county. ***” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 67)4, par. 24.) It is clear that the Authority specifically (and obviously not landlords generally) is charged with the responsibility to provide “decent, safe, and sanitary” low-income housing. It may be argued that safe is limited to a description of the physical condition of the premises. I do not think, however, the legislature intended so narrow a construction of the word safe, nor intended to have housing authorities construct and operate housing projects in a vacuum, oblivious to the realities of urban — especially poor urban-living. Safe encompasses both the physical and social conditions of the premises. Indeed, the second paragraph of section 2 of the Act unequivocally supports this view: “It is further declared as a matter of legislative determination that the crucial housing shortage which prevails throughout the State has contributed and will continue to contribute materially toward an increase in crime, juvenile delinquency, infant mortality, and disease; that by reason thereof it has become a social and economic imperative to broaden the powers of housing authorities with respect to the acquisition of property, the construction of housing accommodations, and the assembly, clearance and sale or other disposition of property acquired for development or redevelopment by persons, firms and corporations; that the provisions of this Act are grounded in public necessity and predicated upon serious emergency conditions requiring immediate consideration and action, and that this amendatory Act embraces public objects and governmental functions essential to the public interest.” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 67)4, par. 2.) The legislature clearly established a duty to protect those lawfully on the Authority’s premises. I share the Authority’s concern that it has been given an “impossible” task by the legislature. Although the reasoning in Lance v. Senior (1967), 36 Ill. 2d 516, 518, was applied to the issue of the existence of a common law duty (rather than a statutory duty as we have found here), it is instructive here: “whether the law imposes a duty does not depend upon foreseeability alone. The likelihood of injury, the magnitude of the burden of guarding against it and the consequences of placing that burden upon the defendant, must also be taken into account.” All parties here acknowledge that low-income housing projects, as here, are the scenes of frequent, tragic crimes, recklessness and violence. (The Authority acknowledges this by arguing it should not be made responsible for acts which are the result of complex socio-economic factors.) Foreseeability and likelihood of injury, resulting from such acts, are not actually disputed here. The burden and consequences are the source of contention. Undeniably, the burden placed on the Authority by the statutory duty is heavy. Even so, the Authority has recognized its obligation by contracting for protective services; since 1950, when the Authority entered into an agreement with Interstate, it has borne the burden of protection of people and property. Despite the pervasive existence of crime in the projects, who can say that, over the long-run, the Authority has failed to meet its statutory duty? The presence of armed, uniformed protective services may have provided needed psychological comfort — and deterrence. The complexity of socioeconomic problems of urban existence should not deter the Authority from exercising or attempting to exercise with reasonable care the duty to provide safe housing as mandated by the legislature. I do not disagree with the majority’s characterization of plaintiff’s action as a tort action apropos of the liability of Interstate. However, my lack of disagreement with the majority is not to the exclusion of characterizing plaintiff’s action as a contract action. Interstate, an independent contractor, by entering into the contract with the Authority to “provide protective services for the purpose of guarding [the Authority’s] properties *** and the protection of persons thereon,” voluntarily assumed the obligation of protecting persons lawfully on the Authority’s property. In doing so, Interstate owed the duty of exercising reasonable care, in the performance of this voluntarily contracted obligation, to persons lawfully on the Authority’s property. “[L] iability can arise from the negligent performance of a voluntary undertaking.” (Nelson v. Union Wire Rope Corp. (1964), 31 Ill. 2d 69, 74. Accord, 1 Dooley 70-73. See 1 Dooley at 394.) I note too the second Restatement: “One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other’s person or things, is subject to liability to the other for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to perform his undertaking, if (a) his failure to exercise such care increases the risk of such harm, or (b) the harm is suffered because of the other’s reliance upon the undertaking.” (Emphasis added.) (Restatement (Second) of Torts sec. 323 (1965).) I agree with the majority’s dismissal of Interstate’s contention that it has not undertaken the obligation of “protection of persons” because that provision in the contract is in the preamble, at the behest of the Authority, rather than in the specific clauses of the contract. The majority accurately responded to that contention. I also agree, therefore, that Interstate had the duty of exercising reasonable care in the performance of its contracted obligation to protect persons lawfully on Authority’s property. The factual question remains, whether that duty was breached. For these reasons, I dissent in part, but would affirm the appellate court and would remand the cause to the circuit court.