Adame v. Munoz

678 N.E.2d 26, 287 Ill. App. 3d 181, 222 Ill. Dec. 619
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 7, 1997
Docket1-96-0813
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 678 N.E.2d 26 (Adame v. Munoz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adame v. Munoz, 678 N.E.2d 26, 287 Ill. App. 3d 181, 222 Ill. Dec. 619 (Ill. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

JUSTICE HOFFMAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Maria De Jesus Adame, initiated this negligence action on behalf of the minor plaintiff, Juan Adame, and against the defendants, Sergio Munoz, Chicago Title & Trust Co., the City of Rolling Meadows, and Murray Weinberg, for injuries sustained by Juan when the bicycle he was riding collided with a vehicle driven by Munoz. The trial court dismissed the plaintiff’s second amended complaint against the City of Rolling Meadows based upon the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (Tort Immunity Act) (745 ILCS 10/2—105, 3—104 (West 1994)). The trial court also dismissed the action as to Weinberg, and it is from this order that the plaintiff appeals. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

The allegations in the second amended complaint state that, on or about May 2, 1994, at approximately 7 p.m., Juan was riding a bicycle at or near a cul-de-sac or parking lot at the East Park Apartments, located along the 4900 block of Algonquin Parkway in Rolling Meadows. At the same time, defendant Munoz was driving an automobile northbound on Algonquin Parkway at or near the intersection of that road with the cul-de-sac or parking lot in which Juan was riding his bicycle. The plaintiff alleges that Weinberg owned, operated, and controlled the East Park Apartments as well as the cul-de-sac and parking lot adjacent thereto. According to the plaintiff, Weinberg placed, or permitted to remain, on the sidewalk, cul-de-sac, or parking lot at East Park Apartments certain trash dumpsters that obstructed the view of bicyclists, motorists, and others in the vicinity of the intersection of Algonquin Parkway and the cul-de-sac or parking lot. As a result of Weinberg’s placement of the dumpsters and his failure to warn of the condition, Juan was struck and severely injured by the vehicle driven by Munoz.

The trial court dismissed the second amended complaint as to Weinberg pursuant to section 2—615 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (735 ILCS 5/2—615 (West 1994)). The plaintiffs motion to reconsider was denied, and this appeal followed.

It is well settled that, on review of an order of dismissal under section 2 — 615 of the Code, this court must determine the legal sufficiency of the complaint taking as true all well-pleaded facts. Gilmore v. Stanmar, Inc., 261 Ill. App. 3d 651, 654, 633 N.E.2d 985 (1994). Pleadings are to be liberally construed, and we must draw all reasonable inferences from those facts that are favorable to the plaintiff. Gilmore, 261 Ill. App. 3d at 654. Actions should not be dismissed on the pleadings unless it clearly appears that no set of facts can be proved that will entitle the plaintiff to recover. Gilmore, 261 Ill. App. 3d at 654.

To state a cause of action for negligence, a complaint must allege facts sufficient to show the existence of a duty, a breach of that duty, and injury to the plaintiff that is proximately caused by that breach. Gouge v. Central Illinois Public Service Co., 144 Ill. 2d 535, 542, 582 N.E.2d 108 (1991). Whether a duty exists is a question of law and depends upon whether the parties stood in such a relationship to one another that the law imposes an obligation on the defendant to act reasonably for the protection of the plaintiff. Ziemba v. Mierzwa, 142 Ill. 2d 42, 47, 566 N.E.2d 1365 (1991). In order to determine whether a duty exists in a particular case, a court must weigh the foreseeability that the defendant’s conduct will result in injury to another and the likelihood of an injury occurring, against the burden to the defendant of imposing a duty and the consequences of imposing this burden. Ziemba, 142 Ill. 2d at 47.

The plaintiff argues on appeal that she adequately stated a negligence cause of action against Weinberg based upon the duty of a property owner as expressed in section 364 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Section 364, titled "Creation or Maintenance of Dangerous Artificial Conditions,” states:

"A possessor of land is subject to liability to others outside of the land for physical harm caused by a structure or other artificial condition on the land, which the possessor realizes or should realize will involve an unreasonable risk of such harm, if
(a) the possessor has created the condition, or
(b) the condition is created by a third person with the possessor’s consent or acquiescence while the land is in his possession, or
(c) the condition is created by a third person without the possessor’s consent or acquiescence, but reasonable care is not taken to make the condition safe after the possessor knows or should know of it.” Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 364 (1965).

The plaintiff alleges that Weinberg’s placement of the dumpsters, an artificial condition of the land, impaired visibility and thereby caused Munoz’s vehicle to collide with Juan’s bicycle. She contends that, under the provisions of section 364 of the Restatement, Weinberg owed a duty of reasonable care to insure that the dumpsters he placed did not create a foreseeable risk of injury to Juan.

Were we writing on a clean slate in this case, we may have been inclined to permit the plaintiff’s complaint to stand. However, given that appellate courts lack the authority to overrule the supreme court or to modify its decisions, our recognition of this cause of action is foreclosed by the supreme court’s decision in Ziemba, 142 Ill. 2d 42, 566 N.E.2d 1365. See Rickey v. Chicago Transit Authority, 98 Ill. 2d 546, 551, 457 N.E.2d 1 (1983).

In Ziemba, the plaintiff alleged that a dump truck that was exiting the defendant’s driveway failed to stop at the end of the driveway and thereby hit the plaintiff, who was riding a bicycle on the street. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant had a duty to trim the foliage on his land near the driveway so that the driveway was visible to travelers on the street.

The supreme court analyzed whether it was reasonably foreseeable that this type of accident would occur as a natural and probable result of foliage obscuring the view of the defendant’s driveway from those traveling on the adjacent street. The court emphasized that, since the condition alone was not dangerous, the accident was a reasonably foreseeable result of the foliage only if it was reasonably foreseeable that the driver would violate his statutory duties when pulling out of the defendant’s driveway. Ziemba, 142 Ill. 2d at 50. The court concluded that the defendant had a right to expect that the truck driver would check for oncoming traffic and could not have reasonably foreseen that a driver would exit a driveway without first ascertaining whether any traffic was approaching on the adjacent road.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Quinn v. Helms
2025 IL App (4th) 241035-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2025)
RGR, LLC v. Settle
Supreme Court of Virginia, 2014
Underwood v. Coponen
625 S.E.2d 236 (Court of Appeals of South Carolina, 2006)
Pluto v. Searle Laboratories
690 N.E.2d 619 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
678 N.E.2d 26, 287 Ill. App. 3d 181, 222 Ill. Dec. 619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adame-v-munoz-illappct-1997.