A Plaintiff's Failure To Present Evidence That Her Fall On A Patch Of Ice Outside Defendant's Restaurant Resulted From An Unnatural Accumulation Of Ice Precludes Recovery
CICIORA v. CCAA, INC. (September 4, 2009)
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Lela Ciciora went to Burrito Jalisco one winter day in Chicago to pick up her lunch. She parked in the lot and used the sidewalk to get to the store. It had snowed earlier but the snow had been removed from the sidewalk. A store employee had also salted the sidewalk that morning. Nevertheless, Ciciora slipped on a small patch of ice and fractured her ankle. She brought a personal injury lawsuit against the owner of the premises and CCAA, who ran the restaurant. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants. Ciciora appeals.
In their opinion, Judges Kanne, Rovner and Evans affirmed. The Court started with the general rule that a property owner has no duty to remove natural accumulations of snow and ice. A duty may exist, however, if one is contractually obligated to do so or if one voluntarily does so. Here, the restaurant owner voluntarily cleared and salted the sidewalk regularly. The Court noted that a volunteer could be liable if her actions resulted in an unnatural accumulation or increased an existing hazard in some other manner. There was simply no evidence presented, however, of an unnatural accumulation or of an aggravation of existing hazard. Ciciora relied on mere speculation. The district court properly granted summary judgment. Similarly, the court concluded that Ciciora failed to present any evidence that the owner of the premises failed to exercise reasonable care in its obligation to maintain the sidewalks.
Michael Rigney practices in the law offices of GVC Ltd. in Chicago. In this blog, he reports on select