Court Opinion

ID: 9726481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:52:41.058256+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:27.621123
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE LINDBERG, dissenting in part: I concur in those portions of the majority opinion holding that doctrine of parental immunity has been recognized by Illinois courts and concluding that it is not our role in this case to abolish the doctrine. However, I respectfully dissent from that portion of the opinion placing on the plaintiff the burden of including in his complaint an affirmative allegation supported by specific facts that the injury arose in connection with an activity outside the family relationship. My reading of the Schenk, Heap, Cummings, and Johnson cases is that the allegations of the complaint as a whole were considered to determine if the behavior complained of was within or outside the parental relationship. Beyond this general pleading burden, a plaintiff has not heretofore been saddled with any specific pleading obligation. Further it is my view that, in looking at the complaint in the instant case as a whole, the complained-of behavior was not necessarily inside the scope of the parental relationship. The complaint alleges the breach of two general duties owed to the public at large: proper parking of an automobile and negligent supervision of a child inside an automobile. The breach of such a duty owed primarily to the general public has been recognized to place a case outside of the parental immunity doctrine. (Cummings v. Jackson (1978), 57 Ill. App. 3d 68, 70.) As in Cummings it could have just as easily been a neighbor who was injured by defendant’s alleged negligence. A different case would be presented by a complaint alleging negligent supervision of the child who was the injured party. Such an action presumably would be barred as being within the family relationship. For the foregoing reasons, I would reverse the judgment of the trial court and reinstate the complaint.