ILLINOIS APPELLATE COURT FINDS PARKING LOT RAMP NOT OPEN AND OBVIOUS AS A MATTER OF LAW
As a Chicago attorney who handles slip and fall cases involving serious injuries, I was pleased with the recent opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court in Alqadhi v. Standard Parking, Inc., et al. No. 1-08-3554. The plaintiff's premises liability complaint alleged she tripped and fell over raised concrete while leaving defendant's parking garage and suffered injury to her knees. Plaintiff contends that defendant failed to mark a 3/4-inch rise in concrete of a wheelchair-accessible ramp near the second-floor to defendant's garage.
Defendants argued that there was no foreseeable risk created by the raised concrete and that the condition was open and obvious. Plaintiff testified that the raised concrete created an optical illusion of a flat walking surface because it was a new building and the concrete had not been painted yellow yet. Plaintiff's expert found that the "lack of contract between the surface of the parking lot and the curb ramp... disguised the abrupt change in vertical elevation between the parking level and those surfaces.. and was not obvious."
Defendant brought a motion for summary judgment, which the circuit court granted on the basis that the concrete's condition was open and obvious. The Plaintiff appealed the court's order and the case has been remanded back the circuit court because the appellate court disagreed with the court's finding that the concrete's condition was open and obvious.
Ultimately, it should be up to the members of the jury to decide whether the parking garage is liable for this plaintiff's injuries. Fortunately, this woman will have her day in court.
