Vested Interest - Tort Briefs - April 2007 Issue

April 2007 Issue > News > Torts

Jury Returns Verdict Against City of Chicago

A Cook County jury deliberated just four hours before returning a verdict against the City of Chicago for two men who suffered injuries when their vehicle was broadsided by a stolen Chicago squad car while they sat at an intersection. The stolen squad car was being chased by another squad car at speeds as high at 60 miles per hour down a neighborhood street, in violation of the department's general orders. Because this lawsuit was brought against the City of Chicago, governmental immunity applied, and plaintiffs had to prove that the police officers were not merely negligent, but that their conduct rose to the level of willful and wanton.

Park District Agrees to Settlement

The Chicago Park District agreed to a settlement with the family of a 12-year-old girl who drowned in Stanton Park pool. The plaintiff was required to prove willful and wanton conduct to overcome the immunity granted by the Tort Immunity Act. This may be the first case against the Park District since the Tort Immunity Statute was amended. The previous version of the statute provided absolute immunity to the park district if the pool was supervised. A previous verdict in a similar case in favor of the plaintiff was reversed by the Appellate Court based on the statute before it was amended.

Transplant Surgery/Plavix Case Settled

On May 29, 2002, a 42-year-old man was admitted to University of Illinois Hospital to undergo a combined kidney-pancreas transplant. The attending transplant surgeon failed to review the patient's medical record and failed to learn that he was taking Plavix, a platelet inhibitor. The Plavix increased the likelihood that the man would experience excessive bleeding during the procedure, for which platelet transfusion is the only treatment. The doctor failed to set aside platelets prior to surgery. During the procedure, the man experienced significant bleeding. Platelets were not requested until well into the transplant procedure after the bleeding was recognized and were not immediately available. As a result of the doctor's failures, the man bled uncontrollably until his death on June 2.

Verdict in Wrongful Death following Trucking Accident

After a three-day trial, a jury returned a verdict for the family of a man killed when the driver of another truck backed into the decedent while he was standing on the underride bar of this trailer tarping a load. The contact caused massive hemorrhages in both thighs from transaction of all the vessels in his legs. He underwent 85 minutes of conscious pain and suffering before he died the next day.

Jury awards compensation to sexually assaulted at age 11

An 11-year-old boy who was a student in the program for gifted students was sexually assaulted in the boys locker room after gym class by a 12-year-old student. The 12-year-old boy had a long, well-documented history of threats and violence against other students and teachers. The public school district did a mental and psychological evaluation on the 12-year-old, revealing that he was emotionally disturbed and had a behavior-disorder. They prepared a special education plan which required the boy to be in a self-contained, behavior-disordered classroom, with a trained aide and receive regular counseling from the school social worker.

Despite steadily deteriorating violent and aggressive behavior, the teacher in the self-contained behavior disordered classroom released the boy to attend gym class with the gifted students. The teacher in the behavior-disordered classroom failed to notify the gym teacher of the student's history. This decision violated both State and Federal law and the individualized education plan for the behavior-disordered child. The assault occurred when the gym teacher then left the boy with the gifted students to change in the locker room after class, without any adult supervision.

Jury Finds for Plaintiff in Rare Injury

Following a two-week trial, the jury found in favor of the plaintiff, a construction worker, for injuries sustained on-the-job. Plaintiff alleged that UVA radiation exposure from a broken metal halide bulb on a construction site caused permanent damage to his 7th cranial nerve. Initially, the injury manifested itself as a first-degree burn and severe eye irritation that progressed into left-sided facial paralysis. Plaintiff's treating physicians testified that, ultimately, this condition progressed into spontaneous and debilitating contractions (dystonia) to the left side of his face, chest and arm.

Both testified that this was the first time they had seen this effect from UVA radiation exposure. Defendants, the general and subcontractor on the site, argued that the plaintiff's own negligence was responsible for the conditions leading up to exposure because plaintiff broke the bulb and further, that the only injury caused by exposure was the sunburn. An electrical engineer was also called by defendants' to illustrate that the UVA radiation exposure plaintiff endured was no greater than 20 minutes in a tanning bed. Prior to trial, plaintiffs' attorneys successfully briefed and argued a Frye motion attempting to bar both treating doctor's testimonies.

Jury Finds for Plaintiff Following Failure to Communicate

A Kane County jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in a failure to diagnose appendicitis case where the defendant hospital's ER doctor created a medical record in his own indecipherable "shorthand," and thus "failed to communicate" with the oncoming physician at a shift change. The oncoming physician, without the benefit of the original history and physical, discharged the plaintiff despite her textbook presentation for appendicitis. When she was seen by her family doctor two days later, her appendix had already burst, resulting in peritonitis, adhesions and additional surgeries. The movie "Cool Hand Luke" and its famous line regarding the "failure to communicate" were referenced throughout the trial.

Jury Returns Verdict for Plaintiff Who Suffers Stroke

A Will County jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff against Health Professionals, Ltd. Plaintiff was an inmate at the Illinois Department of Corrections facility in Pinckneyville, Illinois in January of 2002 when he suffered a stroke. HPL, a Peoria based health provider, had contracted with the State of Illinois to provide health care to the inmates at Pinckneyville. Calling experts in correctional medicine, cardiovascular surgery, neurology, neuropsychology, and life care planning, plaintiff's counsel convinced the jury that the physician who HPL assigned to care for the inmate failed to properly medicate him with Coumadin and failed to properly monitor the thinness of his blood, one or both of which resulted in his stroke. It is believed that this verdict may be the largest verdict ever on behalf of an Illinois inmate.