Wojdyla v. City of Park Ridge

568 N.E.2d 144, 209 Ill. App. 3d 290, 154 Ill. Dec. 144, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 74
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 18, 1991
Docket1-90-0444
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 568 N.E.2d 144 (Wojdyla v. City of Park Ridge) 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
Wojdyla v. City of Park Ridge, 568 N.E.2d 144, 209 Ill. App. 3d 290, 154 Ill. Dec. 144, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 74 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

PRESIDING JUSTICE RAKOWSKI

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff-appellant Evelyn Wojdyla, individually and as administratix of the estate of Eugene Wojdyla, brought a nine-count complaint against defendants-appellees, City of Park Ridge (City) and Commonwealth Edison, alleging various theories of negligence. The trial court granted defendants’ motions for summary judgment. The issue is whether the City owed plaintiff’s decedent a duty to adequately light the area where the decedent crossed Busse Highway, pursuant to either the common law, the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (the Tort Immunity Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 85, pars. 3 — 102(a), 3 — 103(a), 3 — 104(b)) or its agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). We affirm.

At about 5 p.m. on December 29, 1976, plaintiff’s decedent Eugene Wojdyla was a pedestrian crossing Busse Highway in Park Ridge, Illinois. Busse Highway, at the point the decedent was crossing, was a six-lane thoroughfare which is lined with commercial buildings and residential dwellings. Parking is allowed on both sides of the street, and, in fact, Wojdyla was walking to his parked car when he was struck by an automobile.

Busse Highway was lighted on one side of the street by mercury vapor lamps which were placed some 325 feet apart. At the point where Wojdyla crossed, there was no pedestrian crosswalk, and the closest crosswalks were located about a half-mile away. There were no stop signs, yield, signs or traffic lights in the vicinity. The speed limit was 40 miles per hour.

At the time, Bruce Miller was driving his automobile in a southerly direction along Busse Highway. It was dark, and the streetlights were on. Miller’s automobile struck plaintiff’s decedent, who allegedly died as a result of the accident several years after the accident.

In 1976, the City was a signatory to an agreement with IDOT. The agreement provided that the City was to “operate and maintain” the streets covered by the agreement “in the best interests of the people of the State of Illinois.” The City was, by this agreement, charged with operating and maintaining “appurtenances” to the highway, which included the street lighting. Defendant Commonwealth Edison provided the street lighting along Busse Highway. Plaintiff has conceded that if we find that the City did not owe her decedent a duty in this case, then Commonwealth Edison owed no duty either.

In a cause of action alleging negligence, the plaintiff must establish the existence of a duty, a breach of that duty and an injury proximately resulting from the breach of the duty. (Pelham v. Griesheimer (1982), 92 Ill. 2d 13, 18, 440 N.E.2d 96.) The question of the existence of a duty is a question of law. (Curtis v. County of Cook (1983), 98 Ill. 2d 158, 163, 456 N.E.2d 96.) A motion for summary judgment, as defendants presented in this case, properly addresses an issue of duty. Horrell v. City of Chicago (1986), 145 Ill. App. 3d 428, 431, 495 N.E.2d 1295.

Section 3 — 102(a) of the Tort Immunity Act explains the City’s duty to maintain its property:

“[A] local public entity has the duty to exercise ordinary care to maintain its property in a reasonably safe condition for the use in the exercise of ordinary care of people whom the entity intended and permitted to use the property in a manner in which and at such times as it was reasonably foreseeable that it would be used ***[.]” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 85, par. 3— 102(a).)

A municipality has a duty to reasonably maintain its streets for vehicular traffic (Ross v. City of Chicago (1988), 168 Ill. App. 3d 83, 522 N.E.2d 215) and to reasonably maintain its crosswalks for pedestrians (see Mason v. City of Chicago (1988), 173 Ill. App. 3d 330, 527 N.E.2d 572; Risner v. City of Chicago (1986), 150 Ill. App. 3d 827, 502 N.E.2d 357).

In a variety of factual contexts, the Illinois Appellate Court has considered whether municipalities owe a duty to pedestrians who cross streets or highways at locations other than crosswalks. In Deren v. City of Carbondale (1973), 13 Ill. App. 3d 473, 300 N.E.2d 590, the plaintiff alleged that he was struck by an automobile while walking in the street, that the city knew that many pedestrians used the street due to the lack of a sidewalk, and that the city owed the pedestrians a duty to maintain a safe sidewalk for pedestrians. The court stated that “the liability of a municipality with respect to its public streets is limited to their use as streets.” (Deren, 13 Ill. App. 3d at 477.) The court further observed that it was “not prepared to create a general duty upon municipalities for the safeguarding of pedestrians when they are walking on public streets.” Deren, 13 Ill. App. 3d at 478.

In Risner, the plaintiff was struck by a bus as he attempted to cross a heavily travelled street in the middle of the block and in an area where there was no crosswalk provided. The court held that “plaintiff was not an intended or permitted user of defendant’s street, using it in a manner it was reasonably foreseeable it would be used; the street is for use by vehicular traffic — not pedestrians, except where defendant has provided crosswalks or the like.” (Emphasis in original.) Risner, 150 Ill. App. 3d at 831.

In Mason, the plaintiff was crossing the street in the middle of the block to reach her car parked across the street and fell into a hole in the street. The court observed:

“[T]he City owes no duty to warn pedestrians not using the crosswalk of any hazards outside of the crosswalk. The law imposes no general duty on municipalities for the safeguarding of pedestrians when they are using public streets as walkways. *** The law is well settled, therefore, that a municipality owes no duty to a pedestrian crossing a public street outside of the crosswalk.” Mason, 173 Ill. App. 3d at 331-32.

In Di Domenico v. Village of Romeoville (1988), 171 Ill. App. 3d 293, 525 N.E.2d 242, plaintiff fell into a hole in the street while approaching the trunk of his legally, curb-side parked car. In response to the contention that the defendant-village intended that the streets, crosswalks excepted, should be maintained only for vehicular traffic, the court stated:

“It defies common sense to conclude that such local entities did not contemplate and intend that the operator of the vehicle along with passengers would use the street area around the parked vehicle for ingress and egress to and from their vehicle.” (Di Domenico, 171 Ill. App. 3d at 295-96.)

The Di Domenico court concluded that plaintiff, legally parked, could maintain a cause of action for negligence. Di Domenico, 171 Ill. App. 3d at 296-97.

Recently, in Vlahos v. City of Chicago (1990), 198 Ill. App.

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Wojdyla v. City of Park Ridge
568 N.E.2d 144 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
568 N.E.2d 144, 209 Ill. App. 3d 290, 154 Ill. Dec. 144, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wojdyla-v-city-of-park-ridge-illappct-1991.