Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

by

Mary Stevens, 57, was an Alzheimer’s disease victim who also had uncontrolled diabetes.  She was admitted to Eastern Pines Convalescent Center for just eleven days when she suffered a hypoglycemic shock and was transferred to a nearby hospital.

A week later,  Stevens died, reportedly from the hypoglycemia.  Hypoglycemia is a condition caused by low blood sugar or glucose in the body’s bloodstream. Glucose is the body’s main energy source.  Hypoglycemia is commonly a condition that is found in individuals who are being treated for diabetes. Hypoglycemia is not a disease by itself, but it’s an indicator of a health problem or illness. It is like a fever is to the flu. 

Stevens was survived by her two adult children. On behalf of the family, one of the daughters sued the nursing home’s owner, claiming wrongful death.  The lawsuit alleged that the nursing home and staff were negligent and violated the applicable state nursing home regulations. 

Continue reading

by

James Brooks was severely injured in a work accident in which he lost his left hand, wrist and forearm. Brooks was an assembly-line operator for Prairie Packaging Inc.  The on-the-job incident resulted in the filing of a worker’s compensation claim in 1999, the year of this accident. In addition, Brooks sought recovery for a permanent and total disability because of the loss of his limb. 

Prairie Packaging kept Brooks employed despite his inability to work, treating him as a disabled employee on company-approved leave of absence.  In the meantime, Brooks continued to receive healthcare coverage under the company’s employee-benefits plan.

Brooks’s medical costs were paid by the employer-placed health insurance and supplemented by payments through the worker’s compensation action. 

Continue reading

by

Joseph Roberts was 47 years old when he was admitted to the Carriage Hill Health and Rehabilitation Center for a two-month period after he suffered a broken leg. Roberts had a variety of health problems, including stroke-related paralysis. That condition required Roberts to use a wheelchair. He also smoked — against nursing home policy — during this admission. He ignored staff members’ warnings not to smoke and did it anyway. 

When Roberts was hospitalized several months after his admission to Carriage Hill, he requested that he be readmitted. Carriage Hill approved the second admission. However, Roberts continued to smoke during his time at the nursing home facility.

One early morning, a nursing facility aide took Roberts outside and left him there alone to smoke. When the aide returned, she found that Roberts was on the ground with his clothes on fire. 

Continue reading

by

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago has affirmed a decision by a trial judge that led to the forfeiture of an oil and gas franchise. Emmanuel Joseph operated a British Petroleum (BP) service station in Chicago.  Sasafrasnet, LLC was the authorized distributor of BP products.  Joseph was the franchisee with Sasafrasnet being the franchisor. 

In November 2010, Sasafrasnet served Joseph with notice of its intent to terminate the franchise. The termination was based on the three occasions when Sasafrasnet’s attempt to debit Joseph’s bank account to pay for fuel deliveries was declined because of insufficient funds. 

In May 2011, Joseph sought a preliminary injunction to stop the termination. The U.S. District Court judge denied the request finding that Joseph chose not to show “sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make such questions fair ground for litigation.” Joseph appealed the denial to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court first returned the matter to the trial judge for additional findings and conclusions on whether Joseph’s insufficient funds denials amounted to “failures” under the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act (PMPA). PMPA is a federal law that regulates the sales of many petroleum products by producers of oil and gas products to franchised dealers who sell to the public.

Continue reading

by

The defendant Adolyne Dolmer was driving northbound on I-394 in Sauk Village, Ill., when she ran the red light at Sauk Trail Road and T-boned the eastbound car of Megan and Todd Bishop. The Bishops are husband and wife.  The impact was on the passenger side of the Bishop car.

The Bishops alleged in their lawsuit that the crash was heavy, that it spun their car almost 360 degrees and totaled their vehicle. Megan, age 34, was in the front passenger seat and suffered injuries to her cervical facet joints in her neck with accompanying headaches and radiating symptoms down her left arm. She  claimed permanency for the remainder of her life expectancy of 41.9 years. She was treated with 14 injections and 2 radiofrequency neurotomy procedures, designed to kill the nerves in the cervical facets. She also underwent physical therapy and pain medicine. 

Todd Bishop, who was driving, claimed loss of consortium for his wife’s injuries and no other damages.

Continue reading

by

For more than 20 years, the law under Illinois Code of Civil Procedure §2-1001(a)(2) has been that a party may move for substitution of judge one time without cause as a matter of right.  735 ILCS 5/2-1001(a)(2)

Before 1993, the Code of Civil Procedure required that a petition be filed expressly alleging that the trial judge was prejudicial for some specific reason in that particular case.  In 1993, an amendment to the statute was made that stated “one substitution of judge without cause as a matter of right” if the motion “is presented before trial or hearing begins and before the judge to whom it is presented has ruled on any substantial issue in the case, or if it is presented by consent of the parties.”

The case centered on a dispute between four siblings about the ownership of a family farm in Pike County, Ill.  The validity of a §2-1001(a)(2) motion was contested.  In this case, John Schnepf, one of the parties, filed a 2-1001(a)(2) motion before the trial started and before the judge ruled on any substantial issue.  But the judge presiding concluded that her comments during arguments on other matters “certainly indicated some issues that I have problems with” and that “the parties had an opportunity to test the waters” and thus, Schnepf’s motion to substitute judges was denied.

Continue reading

by

The Illinois Appellate Court has reversed and remanded a decision by a circuit court judge regarding a contract.  Global Care S.C. was a medical services corporation that leased several office suites from K&K Holdings. The term of the leases was seven years.  The lease was to end on July 31, 2011.  The original leases were signed on July 30, 2004.

On Oct. 13, 2006, a rider was attached to the original lease, which terminated one of Global Care’s rental suites and added a new one. 

The rider removed Global Care’s ability to terminate the lease early, requiring six months’ notice and payment.  The payment schedule attached to the rider provided for rental payments through Oct. 31, 2013.  There was nothing in the addendum to the rider that extended the lease though October 2013. 

Continue reading

by

Kraft is a well-known manufacturer of food products sold in grocery stores.  It has been selling packaged cheeses sold under the trademarked “Cracker Barrel” label.  Kraft has been selling under that name for more than 50 years.  Thousands of grocery stores carry Kraft cheeses bearing that label. Kraft does not sell any non-cheese products under the name Cracker Barrel. 

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBOCS) is a well-known chain of low-priced restaurants. It opened its first restaurant in 1969. There are more than 620 restaurants now operating, many of them located just off major highways.

When Kraft learned that CBOCS planned to sell a variety of food products, such as packaged hams in grocery stores under its logo, “Cracker Barrel Old Country Store” (the last three words are in smaller type in the logo), Kraft filed this lawsuit. Kraft claimed that many customers would be confused by the similarity of the companies’ logos and would think that food products so labeled were Kraft products. 

Continue reading

by

A 77-year-old male was admitted to a health and rehabilitation center to recover after a fall. Within a couple of months, he developed Stage IV pressure sores on his lower back.  A short time later he passed away because of sepsis related to the infected bed sores.  The resident was survived by his wife and three adult children. 

The family of the resident sued the nursing home’s owner, claiming that the nursing home and its employees and staff chose not to provide the necessary wound care, which included timely repositioning. The negligence lawsuit claimed that the defendant nursing home falsified its records, particularly with respect to the wound care for this nursing home resident. The case was submitted to arbitration, which returned an award for the family for damages in the amount of $375,000.

Continue reading

by

On June 11, 2008, Louis Fortino slipped and fell on wet concrete slurry while doing a village inspection of a construction site in LaGrange Park, Ill. Voightmann Services Inc. was the general contractor for the construction project. 

Mr. Fortino was 64 years old and sustained a severe rotator cuff injury with complete separation of cuff tendons from their connection to the bone, which required surgery to reattach the tendons, using anchors and hardware. The surgery was followed by nine months of physical therapy and work-hardening. Mr. Fortino missed three months as a part-time building inspector and has retired.

At trial, he contended that Voightmann chose not to clean the wet concrete slurry that had been left on the street. The defendant contended that the slurry was left by concrete trucks the day before when it may have been obscured by water.  Voightmann also argued to the jury that Mr. Fortino should have seen the wet concrete area and avoided it. 

Continue reading