Brown v. Chicago Park District

581 N.E.2d 355, 220 Ill. App. 3d 940, 163 Ill. Dec. 404, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1784
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided October 18, 1991·No. 1-90-0246·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinion

JUSTICE LaPORTA

delivered the opinion of the court: ^

Plaintiff through his next friend, his mother, filed suit against the Chicago Park District after her son’s foot was injured when a mirror fell from the wall of a park district indoor public shower. The mirror was originally placed behind a pipe in the shower stall by an unknown third party not involved in the litigation. Plaintiff alleged defendant’s conduct in not removing the mirror before the injury constituted a willful and wanton act because park district employees knew of the existence and in fact had used the mirror in the past. Plaintiff’s complaint was dismissed and amended twice and dismissed a third time for failure to state a cause of action. Plaintiff appealed the final dismissal order, which was entered with prejudice.

On appeal, plaintiff contends the court erred when it ruled that plaintiff’s second amended complaint failed to allege as a matter of law any willful and wanton conduct by the defendant.

Plaintiff also contends the park district was in error to argue as a defense that plaintiff’s action is barred by section 24 of the Illinois Park District Code, which states, “[T]he Chicago Park District shall not be liable for passive negligence on its part for claims arising on and after October 1, 1983” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 105, par. 33.23a). Defendant concedes this issue on appeal and we need not discuss it here.

Plaintiff sued the Chicago Park District after plaintiff, Billy Kenneth Brown, a minor, was injured August 8, 1988, at Pulaski Park in Chicago. Plaintiff alleged that Brown was at the public, indoor shower on that date when a mirror, wedged behind the shower pipe, fell on Brown and seriously injured him. Brown’s age is not in the record. However, an interrogatory submitted to plaintiff by defendant asks what injuries the minor has sustained in the past 12 years.

Plaintiff alleged both negligence and willful and wanton conduct on the part of the park district in counts I and II and sought family expenses under a third count. The court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint and plaintiff was given leave to file an amended complaint. Plaintiff filed an amended complaint in two counts alleging willful and wanton misconduct on the part of the park district and seeking family expenses. Defendant’s motion to strike the complaint was granted, and plaintiff again was given leave to amend.

Plaintiff filed a second amended complaint in two counts which alleged willful and wanton conduct on defendant’s part and sought family expenses. The complaint alleged willful and wanton conduct by park district employees in that:

“Subsequent to the occurrence, a Chicago Park District employee on the scene spoke to the plaintiff and admitted that the Park District staff had known that the mirrors were in the shower room and that they should not have been there.
Prior to [the occurrence] and for some time prior thereto, employees of the Chicago Park District themselves used said mirrors, and were witnessed standing in front of the mirrors and combing their hair.
On [the date of the occurrence] and for some time prior thereto, the defendant and its employees and agents had actual knowledge and notice of the existence of said mirrors in the shower area, and had ample time to take measures to remove the mirrors or otherwise render them harmless.”

Plaintiff alleged willful and wanton conduct in one or more of the following ways: “Willfully and wantonly failed to remove the mirror that injured the plaintiff from its location behind the shower pipe, even though it knew the mirror should not be there and that it constituted a great hazard to users of the public showers; willfully and wantonly failed to affix the mirror securely to the wall or otherwise render it harmless to patrons, even though it knew that the mirror was only wedged behind a pipe and that it constituted a great hazard to users of the public shower; willfully and wantonly failed to warn patrons of the shower that said mirrors constituted a great hazard.”

The trial court dismissed the second amended complaint with prejudice on December 20, 1989. Plaintiff appealed, raising as an issue whether the trial court erred' in its ruling that plaintiff’s second amended complaint failed to allege as a matter of law any willful and wanton conduct by the defendant.

The Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (hereinafter the Tort Immunity Act) provides tort immunity to local public entities or public employees based on the condition of any public property “intended or permitted to be used for recreational purposes, including but not limited to parks, playgrounds, open areas, buildings or other enclosed recreational facilities, unless such local entity or public employee is guilty of willful and wanton conduct proximately causing such injury.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 85, par. 3—106.

Here, plaintiff alleged the defendant’s conduct constituted willful and wanton actions which would serve to block the protection provided by the Tort Immunity Act. The trial court found no willful and wanton conduct on the part of defendant and ruled that the mirror was not something designed on the walls of the building but rather was something people brought to the showers. “[T]he folks who maintain these places, perhaps figured that the patrons of the Park District will continue bringing the mirrors as fast as they can take them down. Even if that’s not their thinking, whether the glass is or the mirror is dangerous or not, is, of course, for a jury to decide; but as a matter of law, I don’t think this conduct, which is now very well described, as about as well alleged as can be set forth, is willful and wanton. I think that the pleadings are sufficient to pass the notice problem, but I think the conduct itself is not willful and wanton.”

Plaintiff’s action was dismissed on a motion to dismiss. To determine the propriety of such a motion, all facts properly pleaded must be taken as true (Nyman v. Washington State Bank (1980), 86 Ill. App. 3d 781, 782, 408 N.E.2d 471, 472) with all reasonable inferences construed in plaintiff’s favor. Scarano v. Town of Ela (1988), 166 Ill. App. 3d 184, 186, 520 N.E.2d 62.

The Tort Immunity Act defines willful and wanton conduct as “a course of action which shows an actual or deliberate intention to cause harm or which, if not intentional, shows an utter indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others or their property.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 85, par. 1—210.

The supreme court in Lynch further defined willful and wanton conduct: “A willful or wanton injury must have been intentional or the act must have been committed under circumstances exhibiting a reckless disregard for the safety of others, such as a failure, after knowledge of impending danger, to exercise ordinary care to prevent it or a failure to discover the danger through recklessness, or carelessness when it could have been discovered by ordinary care.” (Lynch v.

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

Brown v. Chicago Park District, 581 N.E.2d 355, 220 Ill. App. 3d 940, 163 Ill. Dec. 404, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1784 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

581 N.E.2d 355 (Brown v. Chicago Park District) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Banks v. City of Rockford
2023 IL App (4th) 221111 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2023)
Stevenson v. City of Chicago
N.D. Illinois, 2022
Hill v. City of Chicago
2020 IL App (1st) 191587-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2020)
Murphy v. Springfield Park District
2019 IL App (4th) 180662 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2020)
Bielema v. River Bend Community School District No. 2
2013 IL App (3d) 120808 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2013)
Mostafa v. City of Hickory Hills
Appellate Court of Illinois, 1997
Winfrey v. Chicago Park District
654 N.E.2d 508 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1995)
Smith v. Chicago Park District
646 N.E.2d 1330 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1995)
Bucheleres v. Chicago Park Dist.
646 N.E.2d 1326 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1995)
Bucheleres v. Chicago Park District
269 Ill. App. 3d 791 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1994)
Oravek v. Community School Dist. 146
637 N.E.2d 554 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1994)
Oravek v. Community School District 146
264 Ill. App. 3d 895 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1994)
Rooney v. Franklin Park Park District
628 N.E.2d 674 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)
Dunbar v. Latting
621 N.E.2d 232 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)
Ward v. Community Unit School District No. 220
614 N.E.2d 102 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)
Foley v. City of La Salle
608 N.E.2d 964 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)
Straub v. City of Mt. Olive
607 N.E.2d 672 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)
Oropeza v. BOARD OF EDUC., CITY OF CHICAGO
606 N.E.2d 482 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1992)
Bragado v. City of Zion/Police Department
788 F. Supp. 366 (N.D. Illinois, 1992)