Masotti v. Console

552 N.E.2d 1292, 195 Ill. App. 3d 838, 142 Ill. Dec. 551, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 394
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 29, 1990
Docket2-89-0784
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 552 N.E.2d 1292 (Masotti v. Console) 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
Masotti v. Console, 552 N.E.2d 1292, 195 Ill. App. 3d 838, 142 Ill. Dec. 551, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 394 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

JUSTICE INGLIS

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Vito Masotti, appeals from an order of the circuit court granting summary judgment for defendants, Peter Console and Ganna Construction Company. Plaintiff raises two issues on appeal: whether Peter, as the driver of a car, owed plaintiff a duty; and whether plaintiffs actions put his injury beyond the scope of that duty.

On November 13, 1987, plaintiff filed a negligence action against defendant Peter Console. Since both parties were minors, the suit was filed by plaintiff’s mother, Anna Masotti, against Anna Console, Peter’s mother. For convenience we refer to the real parties in interest simply as plaintiff and defendant. In the complaint, plaintiff alleged that in July 1986 plaintiff and Peter were in a parking lot, and Peter was the driver of a car in the lot. While the car was parked, plaintiff climbed on the hood of the car. Peter then started the car and accelerated and decelerated while plaintiff was still on the hood. Plaintiff alleged that Peter negligently started the car with plaintiff on it; operated the car at an unreasonable speed; failed to exercise due care to avoid a collision with plaintiff; increased the speed of the car when Peter knew that plaintiff was hanging onto the outside of the car; and applied the brakes while plaintiff was on the hood of the car. Plaintiff allegedly was injured as a result of these acts.

On January 9, 1989, plaintiff filed a second amended complaint adding an additional count naming Ganna Construction Company (Ganna) as party defendant. Plaintiff alleged that defendant Peter was employed by codefendant Ganna and was acting within the scope of his employment with Ganna at the time the alleged acts occurred.

Defendant Peter filed a motion for summary judgment. The motion itself was presented prior to the time the trial court granted plaintiff leave to file a second amended complaint; however, by order, the court allowed the motion to stand as to both defendants. In the motion, it was argued that plaintiff was injured when he engaged in “horseplay” and that under Gould v. Spreitzer (1986), 145 Ill. App. 3d 938, plaintiff could not recover because his injury, was the foreseeable result of the horseplay. According to defendants, plaintiff’s horseplay was the sole proximate cause of his injury and, therefore, defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

At the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, the parties introduced the deposition testimony of plaintiff, Peter, and three occurrence witnesses. Daniel Gravina, who was 11 years old at the time of the accident, testified that he, plaintiff, Peter and three other boys went rafting behind a shopping center. After they finished rafting, one of the boys, Mike Lombardo, went into the Butera food store to buy a can of pop. Plaintiff, Dan Console (Peter’s brother), and Frank Lombardo (Mike’s brother), went into the K mart to get a drink of water. Peter and Daniel got in the car. Mike came out of Butera, while the other boys were still in K mart, and got into the car. Then, as a joke, Peter started driving the car away while plaintiff, Dan Console, and Frank came running towards it.

Frank reached the car first and while it was still moving, jumped up on the roof and hung onto the open sun roof. Peter stopped the car for a few seconds, and Dan Console and plaintiff caught up with the car. Plaintiff got on the hood of the car, and Dan Console climbed on the trunk. Peter closed the sun roof, so Frank got off the car, and Peter started driving. Daniel was unsure whether the car was completely stopped or was moving very slowly when Frank jumped off. The car then started to accelerate, and Daniel saw Frank and Dan Console standing off to the side. Plaintiff was still hanging onto the hood of the car on the passenger side. Plaintiff was smiling and “goofing off.” Peter slowed and accelerated the car six to seven times, but did not hit the brakes. Peter drove in a straight line at approximately 15 miles per hour. After about two minutes, plaintiff got off; then Peter “slammed” on the brakes, and the car skidded.

Mike Lombardo was 13 years old at the time of the accident. He testified that when he returned to the car from Butera, he helped Peter and Daniel deflate the raft. Then he sat in the front passenger seat. Mike was reading a magazine when he heard the boys jumping on the car. Mike did not see plaintiff get on the car, but he did see plaintiff hanging onto the hood by the rim near the windshield wipers. Mike assumed that Dan Console jumped on the trunk of the car because he heard a bang there. According to Mike, when he heard the bang, the car was moving. Mike estimated that the car was going five miles per hour. Mike also testified that when Peter saw plaintiff on the hood, he stopped the car. Mike did not see plaintiff fall off the car, but he thought plaintiff fell when Peter slammed on the brakes suddenly, and Mike then saw plaintiff on the ground. Mike believed that Peter slammed on the brakes to get plaintiff off the car because plaintiff would not get off.

Frank Lombardo, who was 15 years old at the time of the accident, testified that when they left K mart, defendant Peter and the other boys began hurriedly packing up the rafts when they saw Frank, plaintiff and Dan Console coming. Frank believed that defendant was going to leave without them. The three boys ran to the car. Frank was unsure whether the car was moving when they reached it. Because the doors were locked, Frank jumped onto the side of the car and held onto the sun roof. Dan Console jumped on the trunk, and plaintiff jumped on the hood of the car. Frank thought the car was moving when they jumped on. Frank got off the car when Peter shut the sun roof. Dan Console got off the trunk, but plaintiff remained lying on the hood. Frank testified that plaintiff was showing off by hanging onto the hood of the car, and Frank thought that plaintiff slid off when Peter hit the brakes, but he did not see plaintiff fall. Frank estimated that plaintiff was on the hood of the car for about 10 seconds and the car was moving at approximately five miles per hour.

Plaintiff, who was also 15 years old at the time of the accident, testified that he thought Peter was going to leave without him, Dan Console and Frank. According to plaintiff, the car was not moving when they jumped on it. After he, Frank, and Dan Console jumped on, Peter started the car and began to drive rather fast. Dan Console jumped off the trunk, but plaintiff held onto the rim by the windshield wipers because he did not want to fall off. Plaintiff testified that he did not think Peter would start driving while he was on the hood of the car. Peter then started swerving the car “back and forth,” and plaintiff lost his balance and fell off, landing on his hands and one foot. Peter hit the brakes when plaintiff fell, but the car skidded and ran over his foot. Plaintiff estimated that from the time the car started moving to when he fell off, he had been on the hood for about 10 seconds.

Peter was 16 years old at the time of the accident. He testified that when he saw the boys running toward the car, he started driving it towards the west. Peter wanted the boys to catch up with the car, and they did. He stopped the car before the boys reached it. While it was stopped for a few seconds, Frank grabbed onto the sun roof; Dan Console jumped on the trunk, and plaintiff jumped onto the hood of the car.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
552 N.E.2d 1292, 195 Ill. App. 3d 838, 142 Ill. Dec. 551, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/masotti-v-console-illappct-1990.