Falls on City Property: Pitfalls Most People Do Not Know About

The Traps That Destroy City Property Fall Cases Before They Even Start

Falling on city property in Illinois is legally different from falling in a grocery store or a parking lot, and most people don't find that out until it's too late. I've been handling premises liability cases for close to 30 years, and the number of people who lose viable claims against municipalities because they didn't know the rules is heartbreaking. Let me walk you through the traps so you don't fall into them — figuratively this time.

Trap number one is the notice requirement. When you fall on private property, you have two years to file a lawsuit. When you fall on government property — a city sidewalk, a park, a public building, a CTA station — you must provide written notice to the municipality within one year, and in some cases the deadline is even shorter. That notice isn't just a phone call. It has to be in writing, it has to go to the right department, and it has to include specific information: the date, time, and location of the fall, what caused it, and a description of your injuries. Miss that deadline by one day and your case is dead. I've had people call me 13 months after a fall on city property, and there's nothing I can do for them. The law is unforgiving on this point.

Trap number two is not knowing you're on government property. This catches more people than you'd think. You trip on a broken sidewalk in front of a store and assume the store is responsible. But in many Illinois municipalities, the city owns and maintains the public sidewalk, not the adjacent business. You slip on ice in a park district parking lot — that's government property. You fall on the stairs at a CTA station — government entity. You trip on a raised curb in a village-owned lot — government. If you don't realize you're dealing with a government defendant, you won't know about the shortened deadlines until it's too late.

Trap number three is the natural accumulation rule. If you fall on ice or snow on city property, the city will almost certainly argue that the ice was a "natural accumulation" and therefore they're immune from liability under the Illinois Snow and Ice Removal Act (745 ILCS 75/). Natural accumulations are things like fresh snow, rain that freezes overnight, and frost. If that's what caused your fall, the city is probably off the hook. But — and this is a big but — if the city created an unnatural accumulation through their own actions, they can be liable. If a city plow pushed snow onto a sidewalk and it melted and refroze into a sheet of ice, that's unnatural. If a city-owned downspout dumped water onto a walkway that froze, that's unnatural. If a city-maintained drainage grate was clogged and caused water to pool and freeze, that's unnatural. The distinction between natural and unnatural accumulation is where these cases are won or lost.

Trap number four is the discretionary immunity defense. Even when the city clearly had notice of a dangerous condition, they'll sometimes argue that the decision about when and how to repair it was a "discretionary" decision protected by governmental immunity. The argument goes: "We knew the sidewalk was broken, but we had to prioritize repairs based on available budget, and that prioritization is a discretionary decision you can't sue us for." Sometimes this defense works. But if the condition was so obviously dangerous that no reasonable government official would have left it unrepaired, the discretionary immunity argument falls apart.

The bottom line is this: if you fall on government property in Illinois, you need a lawyer who understands municipal liability — the deadlines, the immunities, and the exceptions to those immunities. Call us at 312-500-4500 the same week it happens, not months later. In these cases, time is your enemy.

Are You 'Intended And Permitted' To Use The Property When You Fell?

This legal gobbledegook means that if you fall on public property (an alley, a city sidewalk, a street, a curb, a parkway), the Court will look at whether you were intended and permitted to use the property as you were using it.  If you are not seens as an intended and permitted user of the area, then the Court will throw out your case.

For example, if you are walking in the street next to the curb, the Court will say that you are not intedned to use that area unless you are getting in and out of your car.  The Court can dismiss your case.  This is special protection other people do not get.

Another one that surprises people is that falls in alleys may not be covered. Using an alley as a sidewalk to access other sidewalks or as a 'shortcut' can mean the end of your falls on City property case.  But, if you were walking in the alley to get in or out of your garage or throwing garbage away, you may have a case.

As you can see if you get hurt on City property, these extra wrinkles can make a case tough. You should get a free consultation with a lawyer familiar with both fall-down cases as well as cases against the City.

Special Protection

Keep in mind that this is the only special protection that Cities like the City of Chicago get when being sued when someone falls on public property.  Private Defendants, like a home owner or a store owner, do not get this kind of protection.  incidentally, talking to a fall-down lawyer is a good idea, because one of the things we can do for you is to make sure who officially owns the property.

So here is a summary of various situations when the Court usually decides that a person who fell down and got hurt was an ‘intended and permitted user’ under the Tort Immunity Act.

Parkways:  Parkways are the grassy area of a street after the sidewalk but before you get to the curb and the street.  Generally, it is foreseeable that private citizens will have occasion to step off of the sidewalk and step onto the parkway, and therefore, encounter a defect or problem that usually causes a fall or other kind of fall down injury, like a broken ankle.  The thing to watch out for here is that the Courts seem to want to know WHY you were on the parkway. For example, a minor can be expected to walk on the parkway. Walking to your car on the parkway when you fell is another explanation. Avoiding a muddy sidewalk, or stepping aside to let a large group of people pass on the sidewalk is good, too. Maybe you were walking your dog and you had to step onto the parkway to pick up the dog’s droppings.  Any of these are the sorts of things that the Court wants to know in a case involving falls on City property.

If you have some reasonable explanation for why you stepped onto the parkway and fell, rather than using the sidewalk, then your case will probably be okay and will not be dismissed.

Alley:  Alleys are generally NOT intended for pedestrian foot traffic, believe it or not.  I was surprised to discover this since we all know that people walk in alleys all the time.  But if you were taking a shortcut through an alley and your foot got caught and you tripped and fell in the middle of an alley, you may be out of the luck, since the Court is likely to say that since you were not an ‘intended and permitted user”, then you cannot maintain a lawsuit.

An important exception is if your city requires you to place your garbage cans on public property for the city to remove your garbage (like it is required in Chicago). And you encountered the problems while, say, throwing away your garbage, then you have a pretty good argument and the Court might allow you to keep your case going.

Street: Walking in the street is a no-no if you want to have an injury case. Basically, the Court says that streets are designed for vehicular traffic and not people walking (i.e., pedestrians), and therefore, you aren’t an intended and permitted user.

Of course, like so much of the law, there are exceptions.  For example, if your car is legally parked, and you are walking onto the street only to get into your case, you might be able to win that case, as long as you are going to your car and your car is parked on the same side of the street as you are on. You cannot cross the street in the middle of the block, because if you do? You guessed it:  you aren’t an intended and permitted user of the street.

Another exception is if you are crossing the street within a marked crosswalk.  Then, the City would have a pretty hard time saying that you aren’t allowed to access the street in a marked crosswalk since they are the ones who designated the area for street crossing.

Falls On Recreational Property

Recreational Property:  Recreational property refers to parks and places like that; places that are maintained specifically for recreation. It is very, very tough to sue for a fall on public property if it is recreational property.

Section 3-106 of the Tort Immunity Act says:

Neither a local public entity nor a public employee is liable for an injury where the liability is based on the existence of a condition of any public property intended or permitted to be used for recreational purposes, including but not limited to parks, playgrounds, open areas, buildings or other enclosed recreational facilities, unless such local entity or public employee is guilty of willful and wanton conduct proximately causing such injury.

If you fell on a recreational property, you cannot sue the City for negligence.  A municipality is immune from liability for injuries occurring on the municipally owned recreational property unless the municipality or its employee is found guilty of willful and wanton conduct.  

Willful and wanton conduct is an action that shows a conscious disregard for the safety of others or actual knowledge that their actions will result in hurting someone. It is very hard to prove. You need extremely strong evidence to have any shot at winning a case like this.