Chicago Injury Lawyers Blog

Chicago Now is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed in Cook County Circuit Court against the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) for the death of a Cabrini-Green resident who fell to his death in an elevator shaft on Monday night.

The man, Clarence Allan Walker, lived at 365 W. Oak Street-- one of the two remaining Cabrini-Green Red buildings still standing. According to court documents, when he tried to use the elevator on Monday night, he "was caused to slip and fall to his death onto the bottom of the elevator shaft.” His wrongful death suit claims that the elevator failed to give service and had a history of poor maintenance and poor performance and that the CHA failed to inspect the elevator in accordance with the American National Elevator Safety Code

The lawsuit alleges two causes of action against the Housing Authority, and is asking for an amount in excess $50,000 for each.

Continue reading "Chicago Housing Authority sued for slip and fall death" »

Antonio Olivo from the Chicago Tribune wrote an interesting expose this weekend on the status of porch inspections in the City of Chicago.

In May, a University Village couple fell 20 feet to the concrete—suffering neck and head injuries—after the guardrail of their apartment porch collapsed. According to the Tribune, the porch at the center of this accident is one of about 700 hazardous porches that have been phoned into the city's 311 system that haven’t been inspected by the City.
These statistics are troubling in light of the tragic Lincoln Park accident six years ago where 13 people were killed as a result of a porch collapse. That accident called the entire inspection process into question and resulted in one of the nation's strictest building codes for newly constructed porches and allowed the City to finally enforce codes on landlords who ignored porch hazards for years. But apparently, the standards implemented as a result of that catastrophe have become lax again. City officials say their hard work has reduced the potential threats, but a shortage of inspection manpower and an increase of new reports may mean that bad porches often are discovered only “haphazardly.”

Continue reading "City of Chicago scales back porch inspections despite continued safety issues" »

According to CNN.com, an air-supported roof over the Dallas Cowboys' practice field collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm Saturday afternoon, leaving 12 people injured.

At the time of the collapse, about 70 people, including more than two dozen of the team's rookies, were in the facility when it was blown down. Two or three people suffered serious injuries, and one coach suffered a broken back.

According to eyewitness reports, rain began falling hard and the walls of the facility because to waiver and the structure seemed to instantaneously deflate.

It is unclear at this time what was the cause of the collapse but generally premises liability law holds property owners accountable when an accident occurs on their premises because the conditions of the property were unsafe or dangerous.

Continue reading "Collapse at Dallas Cowboy’s training camp leaves 12 injured" »