Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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Most people would consider feeling safe in one’s home or apartment to be a high priority. If that safety is violated, whether through an attack or inadequate security, most people would look to the building owner or manufacturer for a failure to maintain a safe living environment. However, in Robert Sanchez v. Wilmette Real Estate and Management Co., et al., No. 1-08-0248, the Illinois court ruled that the building owner and manufacturer did not owe the plaintiff a duty to protect him from being attacked on its premises.

At the time of the attack Sanchez was living at an apartment complex owned by BHC5900 and managed by Wilmette Real Estate and Management Company. The plaintiff was walking towards his apartment when he was attacked by an unknown assailant who had been hiding in a vacant apartment within the complex.

Sanchez accused the defendants of leaving vacant units unlocked, a practice that made it easy for his assailant to hide undetected prior to the attack. However, the defendants denied this practice and further denied any breached duty towards the plaintiff. A trial court agreed with the defendants and granted their motion for summary judgment, dismissing them from the Illinois inadequate security lawsuit.

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A recent Illinois Appellate Court case reviewed what a drug store’s duty is to its customers regarding possible drug interactions in an Illinois pharmaceutical lawsuit. In DiGiovanni v. Albertson’s, Inc., No. 04 L 3580, the decedent’s estate alleged that the pharmacy had a duty to warn the decedent about a possible interaction between her two prescribed medications, an interaction that eventually caused her death. However, both the Cook County trial court and the appellate court agreed that the pharmacy did not have a duty to warn the customer of the possible drug interaction in the present pharmaceutical malpractice case.

The decedent had been prescribed Tenoretic, a medication to treat high blood pressure, by her longtime doctor, Dr. Shastri. When filling the prescription the pharmacy noted that Tenoretic could interact with lithium, which the decedent was also taking to treat her manic depression. Upon noting the possible interaction the pharmacist called Dr. Shastri, who had prescribed both medications, to determine whether he should continue to fill both prescriptions. Dr. Shastri directly told the pharmacist to fill the prescriptions and stated that he would monitor the decedent for possible interactions.

The following week DiGiovanni returned to the same pharmacy for a prescription refill of the same medications. At the time a different pharmacist again noted the possibility of a drug interaction between the two medications. However, the pharmacist refilled both prescriptions after reviewing a note on the decedent’s file indicating that her doctor would be monitoring her for possible drug interactions.

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An Illinois wrongful death case recently settled in Will County for $5 million. The case was brought by the estate of a 57 year-old married mother of two adult children after she was killed in an Illinois auto accident. Estate of Heinz v. Messel, et al., No. 07 L 0090.

The highway crash took place on I-55, a highway connecting Chicago to St. Louis. The decedent driver was traveling northbound on the highway in the area of the Plainfield Township when a car driving southbound crossed the grassy median separating the different directions of traffic and crashed into the woman’s vehicle. The head-on crash caused the decedent’s car to flip over and land in a ditch off to the side of the highway.

An investigation of the accident revealed that the at fault driver was intoxicated at the time of the Illinois car crash. Whenever an Illinois car accident involves a DUI, the Illinois state’s attorney can bring his/her own criminal charges against the offending driver. Under Illinois law, a person may be deemed intoxicated if their blood alcohol content (BAC) is measured at .08 or higher. Presumably some sort of action was taken in response to the fatal car accident; however, the criminal action would have been completely separate from the civil action involving the wrongful death claims.

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Many people’s circumstances never require them to file one lawsuit, let alone two. Yet within the span of four months Jihan Khourny was injured on two different occasions, leading to her filing two different, but related lawsuits – one being an Illinois personal injury lawsuit, the other an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit. Both cases recently settled for a combination of $1.9 million. Khourny v. Sarmed Elias, M.D., et al., No. 07 L 3871.

The personal injury claim arose from a car crash that occurred in Elgin, Illinois. Khourny was driving along Route 31 when she was hit by another car. The Illinois car accident lawsuit was brought against the driver of the other vehicle and settled for $100,000. The plaintiff was claiming property damage to her vehicle and a neck injury as a result of the car accident.

Shortly after the accident Khourny began seeking medical treatment for her neck injury. Her doctor recommended she try cortisone injections as part of her treatment plan. Cortisone injections are typically given to relieve inflammation and pain and are used for a wide variety of complaints, including arthritis, tendinitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

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Yesterday former Illinois governor Rob Blagojevich was found guilty of lying to FBI agents about his involvement in campaign fundraising. The jury could not agree on the remaining 23 felony counts brought against Blagojevich by the government, including charges of trying to profit from Obama’s former Senate seat.

Prosecutors intend on retrying Blagojevich on those 23 additional counts on which the deadlocked jury was unable to agree. Because the jury was unable to unanimously agree on those counts there was a mistrial regarding those counts. Legally this means that the former governor can be retried on them and still be found guilty. However, if the jury had found him not guilty on any counts, which it did not, then those felony charges would be barred from further prosecution.

The current conviction carries a maximum of five years in prison; however, the official sentencing is unlikely to occur before the retrial. If Blagojevich ends up being convicted of all the felony counts against him then he faces up to 415 years in prison and up to $6 million in fines.

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A recent Illinois personal injury lawsuit received a large verdict award, granting $30.4 million to the plaintiff in Solis v. BASF Corp., No. 06 L 12105. Several other parties to the Illinois work place injury lawsuit had settled with the plaintiff prior to trial for undisclosed amounts, but BASF Corp. opted to take the case to trial rather than settling. The supply company’s gamble failed, as evidenced by the positive plaintiff verdict.

In Solis, the plaintiff developed bronchiolitis obliterans.pdf, or ‘popcorn lung disease’, after 18 years of working in various factories. Bronchiolitis obliterans has been linked to exposure to substances used to make microwave popcorn, such as diacetyl.

After being diagnosed with the life-threatening disease, Solis now has a reduced lung capacity of only 25 percent. This means that without a lung transplant the life-long nonsmoker and unmarried father of three could die if he develops the flu or other respiratory diseases. The 45 year-old Illinois resident brought a Cook County workplace injury lawsuit against several parties alleging that his current condition was a result of his exposure to fumes and dust particles while working with artificial butter flavoring.

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While medical advances have made many formerly difficult surgeries routine, there are still dangers with any surgery, especially when anesthesia is involved. In Estate of Yvonne Harris v. Advocate Healthcare Network, et al., No. 03 L 6421, medical negligence during a routine laparoscopic tubal ligation surgery left the decedent with severe brain damage. An Illinois medical malpractice settlement totaling $8.95 million was reached between the decedent’s estate and the surgeon, anesthesiologist, physician group, and surgical center.

The healthy, young mother of two presented for the laparoscopic tubal ligation surgery, a permanent form of contraception that was supposed to be a simple in and out procedure. She was given general anesthesia and the procedure began. However, within five minutes the anesthesiologist noted that she had cardiac arrhythmia, which is an abnormal heart rate, and no blood pressure. All parties affirmed that the patient had not been getting any oxygen to her brain for several minutes.

The Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that the surgeon and anesthesiologist failed to recognize the plaintiff’s deprived condition for several minutes, which resulted in her subsequent brain damage. The patient’s abnormal heart rate and lack of blood pressure were a rare complication of the surgery and were thought to be the result of a carbon dioxide embolism.

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A Cook County jury verdict was affirmed by the Appellate Court, resulting in an $8.3 million award to the surviving spouse of a construction worker who died in a Chicago construction site accident. The court found that the defenses’ claims of an unfair trial and of unreasonable compensation were unfounded and affirmed the Illinois jury’s decision in Colella v. JMS Trucking Company of IL, Inc., et al., No. 1-08-1072.

The Illinois construction site accident occurred when the decedent was struck by a JMS Trucking dump truck driven by defendant Samuel Inendino. At the time of the accident the decedent was working at removing water from the area around a newly installed water main. At the jury trial the decedent was found to have contributed 10 percent to his own accident, while the defendants JMS Trucking and Inendino were 90 percent negligent.

While defendant JMS Trucking had attempted to bring the decedent’s employer into the construction site injury lawsuit as a third party defendant, the jury did not find the decedent’s employer, Benchmark Construction Company. On appeal, JMS Trucking argued that the Benchmark’s liability in the decedent’s accident and death was so obvious that it should have been reflected in the jury verdict. However, the appellate court did not agree and let the jury’s ruling regarding the third-party defendant stand.

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A recent Illinois wrongful death case combined both medical malpractice counts and product defect counts. Susan Calles, et al. v. Scipto-Tokai Corp., et al., No. 07 L 4577, was initially dismissed on summary judgment, but was then returned to the trial court by the Illinois Appellate Court. The case has now concluded after reaching a settlement of $3.5 million; $1.5 million for the medical malpractice and $2 million for the product defect.

Calles involves the death of Jillian Calles, a three year-old girl who suffered smoke inhalation as a result of a fire her twin sister caused. The twin was playing with a butane lighter when she accidentally started the fire. The Illinois product defect claim alleged that the lighter design improperly lacked a child-resistant device.

Under product defect liability, a manufacturer may be held liable for a design flaw in its product if that flaw presents a danger to consumers that could have been eliminated. In addition, the danger must be a byproduct of the product’s intended use. For example, if someone becomes injured while balancing a chair on two of its four legs then this would not be the result of a design flaw given that the product was not meant to be used that way.

However, this caveat does not apply in Calles where the twin sister was obviously using the lighter correctly given that she was able to light it. Rather, the estate claims that the design should have prevented the three year-old from being able to use the lighter, period. The specific type of lighter was an Aim N Flame utility lighter manufactured by Scripto-Tokai.

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A recent Cook County work site injury lawsuit was settled for $3.375 million; Ortiz v. Cato Karabegovic, et al., No. 06 L 006651. Contributing to the settlement were two trucking companies, a truck driver, and a railroad company.

The plaintiff, Ortiz, was a mechanic working at a railroad yard on Chicago’s South Side. While working on the defendant Karabegovic’s truck, Ortiz was severely injured after being dragged for 30 feet underneath the moving truck. As a result of this incident, Ortiz sustained multiple fractures and severe nerve damage to his leg, which left him with a permanent foot drop. The 33 year-old Ortiz is no longer able to work as a mechanic as a result of the injury
However, there was some debate regarding who was liable for the plaintiff’s injury and to what degree the plaintiff contributed to his own accident. Issues of contributory fault are important in Illinois personal injury lawsuits because if the defense can prove that the plaintiff was more than 50% at fault then any judgment entered against the defense is reduced by the degree of plaintiff’s negligence. For example, if a jury returned a $100,000 verdict but found that the plaintiff was 40% negligent, then the jury award would be reduced by 40%, leaving the plaintiff with $60,000.

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