Torres v. City of Chicago
Case Date: 09/17/2004
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-03-0357 Rel
|
SIXTH DIVISION
JUSTICE McNULTY delivered the opinion of the court: On July 24, 1998, police officers responded to a call to 911reporting a shooting. When officers arrived at the scene shortlyafter 2 a.m., Hector Rivera was lying on a bathroom floor,bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Police called for anambulance for Rivera an hour and a half later. Rivera died thatmorning. Angelina Torres, as special administrator of Rivera'sestate, sued the City of Chicago (the City) for wrongful death. The trial court granted the City's motion for summary judgment,finding that the City and its officers owed no duty to Rivera. Torres appeals. Assuming that the City had no duty to respond to the 911call, we hold that the City voluntarily undertook the response,and at that point it assumed a duty not to harm Rivera. Torrespresented evidence that the City breached that duty when itsofficers told at least one person who sought to help Rivera toleave the area. Section 4-102 of the Local Governmental andGovernmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (Act) (745 ILCS 10/4-102(West 1998)) does not apply here because Rivera needed thoseresponding to the 911 call to provide medical care, not policeprotection or services. We find that Torres presented sufficientevidence to withstand the motion for summary judgment. Because the trial court granted the City's motion for summary judgment, we state the facts supported by the record inthe light most favorable to Torres. The City's 911 servicereceived at least five calls reporting persons shot near aspecified intersection. Officers responding to the calls foundtwo persons outside an apartment building at that location withgunshot wounds. The officers called for two ambulances and botharrived and took away the two injured persons within minutes. Witnesses at the scene told police that a third person also hadbeen shot. An officer told one such witness, a neighbor, "Don'tworry about it. Get out of this area." When the neighborrepeated that another man was wounded, the officer again told theneighbor to leave. Another witness told the officers that a manwith gunshot wounds was in a bathroom in the witness's apartment. Officers told the man to wait because they needed to takepictures of the scene. A trail of blood marked the stairs andled to the bathroom where Rivera lay bleeding. An officer found Rivera alive in the bathroom, but he lefthim there because Rivera appeared drunk. Some time later awitness took another officer into the bathroom. The witnesslifted Rivera's shirt and showed the officer the bullet wound. The officer then called for an ambulance, dispatched at 3:33 a.m. Rivera died before 7 a.m. that day. A doctor who reviewed themedical records opined that if Rivera had received treatmentwithin an hour of the shooting, "his chances of survival wouldhave been increased *** by at least 50%." Torres, in her complaint, alleged that the willful andwanton conduct of the officers increased Rivera's suffering andcaused his death. She also claimed that the City deprived Riveraof equal protection of the laws. The City removed the case tofederal court. The federal court denied the City's motion todismiss the complaint (Torres v. City of Chicago, 123 F. Supp. 2d1130, 1136 (N.D. Ill. 2000)), but later the court enteredjudgment in favor of the City on the claim that it deprivedRivera of equal protection of the law. The court remanded thestate law claims to the circuit court of Cook County. The circuit court held that the City had only a duty to thepublic, and no duty to Rivera, to respond to the 911 call. Because Torres presented no evidence of breach of any enforceableduty, the court granted the City summary judgment.
The Illinois Constitution of 1970 abolished the doctrine ofsovereign immunity, "[e]xcept as the General Assembly may provideby law." Ill. Const. 1970, art. XIII, |
||||