Naperville isn’t liable for a woman’s injuries after she fell while walking across a bridge downtown, according to a recent court ruling.
The Third District Appellate Court last week affirmed a DuPage Circuit Court decision that Naperville resident Ramona Ory failed to prove the city knew about a defect in the sidewalk when she fell July 8, 2017, on the Main Street pedestrian bridge.
In her lawsuit filed in May 2018, Ory alleged her fall was the result of “abrupt changes” in the level of the sidewalk in excess of 11/2 inches and was seeking more than $50,000 in damages for her injuries.
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Ory also said “sidewalk defect” had existed “for a long time prior to the incident” and the city failed to warn pedestrians of the defect or properly illuminate and repair it.
The ruling from appellate Justices Joseph Hettel, Mary McDade and Adrienne Albrecht said the city proved it had a “reasonably adequate” inspection system and the “defect” was minimal.
The justices said municipalities are not required to keep sidewalks in perfect condition at all times, and Illinois courts have held that slight defects are not actionable as a matter of law.
Court documents show Ory, who was 62 years old at the time, said she met two friends for dinner between 6 and 6:30 p.m. at a restaurant downtown and the three strolled through town after that.
Ory fell about 11:40 p.m. while walking on the Main Street bridge in an area where a concrete expansion joint met adjacent brick pavers, which Ory said had sunk and caused a change in the height of the walking surface, according to court documents.
The documents say Ory and her friends didn’t notice the height change until after she fell.
Keith Kania, a private investigator hired by Ory, measured the deviation between the concrete and brick pavers being ? of an inch to 11/2 inches, court documents say.
Robert Kozurek, who was deputy city engineer from the late 1990s until his retirement in 2017, testified in a deposition that he inspected city bridges every four years and the last time he reviewed the Main Street bridge was on Sept. 19, 2015, where he found no defects, sinking or settling in the sidewalks.
Kozurek said in the deposition he would have noted a sidewalk defect and reported it if it met the criteria for replacement: a one-inch or more height differential between sidewalk sections.
Based on his notes, no sidewalks adjacent to the bridge on Sept. 9, 2015, had sunken or risen to a height difference of more than one inch, he said.
To avoid going to trial, the city filed for a summary judgment, arguing it was immune from liability because the city received no other complaints of a defect with the sidewalk at the bridge, the alleged defect was minimal, and the city maintains an inspection and sidewalk replacement program that looks for and fixes defects.
The DuPage Circuit Court granted the summary judgment, which was affirmed by the appellate court after an appeal by Ory.