City and Park District Not Liable for Alleged Defective Design of 606 Trail
Guzman was running on the Bloomingdale
Trail (also known as the “606 Trail”) when a bicyclist struck her from behind
and she was injured. Guzman sued the Chicago Park District, the City of
Chicago, the bicyclist that struck her as well as Collins Engineering, the
project manager for the development of the 606 Trail.
The Park District argued the case should
be dismissed Section 3-106 of the Illinois Tort Immunity Act. That statute says
that a public entity or employee will not be liable for an injury if the claim
is based on a condition of any public property intended or permitted to be used
for recreational purposes except where the public entity is guilty of willful
and wanton conduct. The circuit court agreed and dismissed the case, and Guzman
appealed.
Although Guzman admitted that the 606
Trail is public property used for recreational purposes, she argued that the design
of the trail was too narrow to provide sufficient space for users to pass one
another, is not a “condition” within the meaning of the Tort Immunity Act.
Guzman specifically argued that the term “condition” refers to things that are
actually on the trail itself, such as snow, but her argument was that the 606
Trail design was defective.
On appeal, the appellate court examined
a series of cases where the claims were not based on activities conducted on
recreational property, but rather based on the recreational property’s design
or construction, including claims that a sidewalk was built too high, a
midblock crosswalk was negligently misplaced and that a golf box tee was placed
in a dangerous location for spectators.
In all of these cases, courts have found that immunity applied to bar
lawsuits related to the construction of recreational property. Based on these
cases, the court that the Tort Immunity Act barred Guzman’s claims of defective
design and both the Park District and City of Chicago were immune from
liability.
Post Authored by Christy Michaelson, Ancel Glink
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