Icy sidewalk derails claim for immunity

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted January 28, 2015 2:59 PM

Alleging she was hit by a car when she was forced to step onto Touhy Avenue because an unnatural accumulation of snow and ice from careless plowing made a sidewalk in Park Ridge impassable, Lorraine Pattullo-Banks sued the city for negligence. But the city — arguing Pattullo-Banks wasn’t an intended user of that portion of the street because she wasn’t walking an area marked as a crosswalk — claimed immunity under Section 3–102(a) of the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort …

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