Shawn Staples
2018-L-006190 (Cook County, Illinois)
Matt Pierotti and Shawn Staples won summary judgement on a case involving a multiple vehicle traffic accident on I 90/94 in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The Plaintiff was a young woman who claimed she stopped and attempted to help Matt and Shawn’s client, who lost control of his car during inclement weather. After Plaintiff stopped her vehicle, she was rear ended twice by two other Defendants on the highway. Plaintiff complained of continuing knee pain from the accident, and underwent surgery. Even after surgery she claimed her pain persisted and secured an expert to opine as to the necessity of future surgery.
Prior to trial, Plaintiff made a settlement demand to all three Defendants totaling $500,000, and just before the trial was scheduled to begin, Plaintiff settled with and dismissed the two other Defendants who had struck Plaintiff’s vehicle. This left Matt and Shawn’s client as the only remaining Defendant.
Matt Pierotti
Matt and Shawn moved for leave to file a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the posture of the case was significantly altered by the dismissal of the two other Defendants. Matt and Shawn argued that even accepting Plaintiff’s factual account as completely accurate, their client’s actions could not have been a proximate cause Plaintiff’s injuries as their client never touched Plaintiff’s vehicle. Their client simply caused the condition by which Plaintiff was injured: and based upon binding precedent from the Illinois Supreme Court, only the dismissed Defendants could be held legally responsible for Plaintiff’s injuries. While Plaintiff argued that there were still issues of fact to be considered by a jury, the Judge held otherwise. “In short, [Plaintiff] cannot establish proximate causation because her action in pulling over and stopping in the lane of the expressway to render aid was not something [The Defendant] could have reasonably foreseen or anticipated, rendering the injuries she suffered from the collisions by the dismissed Defendants themselves unforeseeable.”
Matt and Shawn were thrilled with this result for their client, which avoided the additional time and expense of trial.
