A north suburban gym isn’t liable for the injuries suffered by a man who failed to follow the instructions on his visitor’s pass, a federal judge has held.

In a written opinion this week, U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman threw out a personal-injury lawsuit that Gary Belot filed against LTF Club Operations Company Inc.

Belot was hurt when he tripped over a set of electrical cords and conduits at Life Time Athletic in Vernon Hills, a gym operated by LTF.

Guzman concluded Belot was a trespasser at the time of the accident because he chose to explore the gym on his own rather than check in at the front desk and take a tour of the facility with a staff member.

Because Belot was a trespasser, Guzman continued, the gym did not owe him a duty of reasonable care.

Instead, the gym owed Belot only a duty to refrain from willfully and wantonly injuring him, Guzman wrote. And he held the facility did not breach that duty.

Belot does not allege anyone at the gym intentionally set out to injure him, Guzman wrote.

There also is no evidence, he wrote, that the cords and conduits constituted a dangerous condition or that other people had previously been injured because of that condition.

Guzman granted summary judgment in favor of LTF on Belot’s negligence claim as well as on a loss-of-consortium claim brought by Belot’s wife.

Belot went to Life Time in July 2013 after receiving a guest pass in the mail.

The back of the pass said guests must present photo identification and take a tour with a staff member before going into the gym.

No one was at the front desk when Belot arrived. He waited a few minutes and then began looking around the gym by himself.

He tripped over the cords and conduits when he tried to get on an elliptical machine.

Belot suffered injuries that included a fractured arm which required surgery.

Belot initially filed his suit in Cook County Circuit Court. Chanhassen, Minn.-based LTF removed the action to federal court under diversity jurisdiction.

LTF operates more than 100 gyms in 21 states under the names Life Time Athletic and Life Time Fitness.

In his opinion, Guzman wrote that invitees under Illinois law are people who enter property at the express or implied invitation of the owner.

The entry must be connected to the owner’s business or with an activity the owner is allowing to be conducted on the property, Guzman wrote.

And, he wrote, the owner must benefit from the invitees’ presence on his or her property.

On the other hand, trespassers are people who enter property for some purpose of their own without the owner’s permission, Guzman wrote.

“Importantly,” he wrote, “a person’s status is determined at the time of injury.”

Guzman conceded the gym sent the guest pass to Belot with the aim of having him view the facility and enroll as a gym member.

But invitees may become trespassers, Guzman wrote, when “they go to an area beyond the scope of an invitation or otherwise deviate from conditions of that invitation.”

That’s what Belot did when he wandered into the gym, Guzman wrote.

“In failing to comply with the terms of the invitation, plaintiff undermined the business purpose of the guest pass, as well as its specific terms and conditions,” he wrote.

“Accordingly, the court finds that plaintiff exceeded the scope of defendants’ invitation, making him a trespasser when he fell.”

Belot is represented by Alexander Tolmatsky of Tolmatsky & Welter Ltd. in Northbrook and Ilia Usharovich of Wheeling.

The attorneys declined to comment.

The lead attorney for Life Time is Brian P. Shaughnessy of Cremer, Spina, Shaughnessy, Jansen & Siegert LLC.

“We thought it was a very well-reasoned opinion,” Shaughnessy said.

Guzman issued his opinion Tuesday in Gary Belot, et al., v. LTF Club Operations Co. Inc., et al., No. 14 C 9204.