Coleman v. E. Joliet Fire Prot. Dist.

• Decision Date: 22 January 2016
• Docket Number: No. 117952.,117952.
• Citation: 46 N.E.3d 741
• Parties: Marcus COLEMAN, as Successor Adm'r of the Estate of Coretta Coleman, Deceased, Appellant, v. EAST JOLIET FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT et al., Appellees.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

46 N.E.3d 741

Marcus COLEMAN, as SuccessorAdm'r of the Estate of Coretta Coleman, Deceased, Appellant

v.EAST JOLIET FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT et al., Appellees.

No. 117952.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Jan. 22, 2016.

Roman R. Okrei, Lockport, for appellant.

Stephen H. Dinolfo and Ericka J. Thomas, Ottosen Britz Kelly Cooper Gilbert & Dinolfo, Ltd., Naperville, for appelleesEast Joliet Fire Protection District, Louis Helis and Scott Mazor.

Kevin J. Clancy, Martin W. McManaman and Patrick R. Moran, Lowis & Gellen LLP, Chicago, for appelleesWill County and Laurie Zan.

Clausen Miller P.C., Chicago (Kimbley A. Kearney, Edward M. Kay, Paul X. Bozych and Timothy F. Jacobs, of counsel), for appelleesOrland Fire Protection District and Eric Johnson.

Deidre Baumann, Baumann & Shuldiner, Chicago, for amicus curiaeIllinois Trial Lawyers Association.

Jon Yambert and Rebecca Fozo, Chilton Yambert Porter LLP, Chicago, for amicus curiaeIntergovernmental Risk Management Agency.

Scott L. Howie, Pretzel & Stouffer Chartered, Chicago, for amicus curiaeIllinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel.

James S. Sinclair, Stobbs, Sinclair & Associates, Ltd., Alton, Michael Resis, SmithAmundsen LLC, and James J. Roche and Lance J. Sherry, James J. Roche & Associates, Chicago, for amici curiaeIllinois Association of Fire Protection Districts et al.

Roger Huebner, Springfield, James J. Powers, Clark, Baird, Smith LLP, Rosemont, and Todd K. Hayden and Kenneth M. Florey, Robbins Schwartz, Mokena, for amici curiae Illinois Municipal League et al.

Thomas G. DiCianni, Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush, DiCianni & Krafthefer, P.C., Chicago (David Lincoln Ader, of counsel), for amici curiaeMunicipal Insurance Cooperative Agency and McHenry County Municipal Risk Management Agency.

OPINION

Justice KILBRIDEdelivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 The common-law “public duty rule” provides that a local governmental entity and its employees owe no duty of care to individual members of the general public to provide governmental services such as police and fire protection services.SeeHuey v. Town of Cicero,41 Ill.2d 361, 363, 243 N.E.2d 214(1968).In this appeal, we address the continued viability of the public duty rule in Illinois.

¶ 2 A wrongful death and survival action was filed on behalf of the estate of Coretta Coleman against defendants, East Joliet Fire Protection District¹ and its ambulance crew, Louis Helis and Scott Mazor; Will County² and its 911 operator, Laurie Zan; and the Orland Fire Protection District,³ also known as Orland Fire District and doing business as Orland Central Dispatch, and its emergency medical dispatcher, Eric Johnson.Coleman alleged that defendants' negligent and/or willful and wanton acts and omissions deprived Coretta of a chance to survive and caused her pain and suffering.

¶ 3The circuit court of Will County granted summary judgment in favor of all defendants, finding that the public duty rule applied and that defendants owed Coretta no special duty.The appellate court affirmed.Coleman v. East Joliet Fire Protection Dist.,2013 IL App (3d) 120583–U, 2014 WL 2719300.We allowed plaintiff's petition for leave to appeal.We now reverse and remand.

¶ 4 BACKGROUND

¶ 5Coretta Coleman and her husband, Stanley, lived in an unincorporated area of Will County called Sugar Creek.In June 2008, all 911 calls from the Sugar Creek area were initially routed to the Laraway Public Safety Access Point, a police dispatch center operated by the Will County sheriff's office that handled only police emergencies.The East Joliet Fire Protection District provided fire and ambulance services to the Sugar Creek area and contracted with the Orland Fire Protection District for dispatching those services.All medical emergency calls from the Sugar Creek area were transferred from the Laraway Public Safety Access Point to Orland Central Dispatch, whose operators then dispatched ambulances operated by the East Joliet Fire Protection District.

¶ 6 The record indicates that on June 7, 2008, at 6:10 p.m., Coretta called 911.She was connected to the Will County 911 operator on duty, Laurie Zan.Coretta told Zan that she could not breathe and needed an ambulance.Coretta gave her address as “1600 Sugar Creek Drive” in Joliet, and told Zan to “hurry.”Zan told Coretta to hold and then transferred the call to Orland Central Dispatch.Eric Johnson, an emergency medical dispatcher for Orland Central Dispatch, received Coretta's transferred 911 call from Zan.Although the written procedures required Zan to communicate the nature of Coretta's emergency call, Zan hung up as soon as the call was transferred and did not speak to Johnson.Johnson asked Coretta some questions but received no response.Johnson did not know whether anyone was on the line or whether the call was dropped.Johnson hung up and called Coretta's number twice but received a busy signal.Johnson testified that dispatchers are trained to call the agency that transferred the 911 call if more information is needed, but he did not.Johnson identified the nature of the call as an “unknown medical emergency” and placed the call in line for an ambulance dispatch at 6:13 p.m.

¶ 7 At 6:16 p.m., East Joliet Fire Protection District ambulance 524, crewed by Louis Helis and Scott Mazor, was dispatched to the Coleman residence.Helis and Mazor were given Coretta's address and told that the 911 call involved an “unknown emergency.”Helis and Mazor arrived at the Coleman residence at 6:19 p.m.They were unable to enter the home because the doors were locked.They rang the doorbell, pounded on the doors, and yelled “Fire Department!” but no one answered.They looked in the windows of the home but did not see anyone.Helis and Mazor radioed Orland Central Dispatch for more information and asked the dispatcher, Jacqueline Johnson, to call Coretta.Jacqueline Johnson told Helis and Mazor that “we'll try in a minute.”Jacqueline Johnson recalled that when she attempted to contact Will County for more information, the line was busy.

¶ 8 While at the Coleman home, Helis and Mazor were approached by two neighbors who informed them that an elderly couple lived at the residence.The man had heart issues, and they had seen him mow the lawn earlier that day, but his truck was gone.The neighbors did not have the Colemans' phone number but said the woman was unlikely to answer the phone.Based on this information, Helis and Mazor determined that a forced entry could not be made.Helis and Mazor told the neighbors that they could not make a forced entry without a police officer present.However, they advised that the neighbors could call the police and ask them to perform a forced entry.

¶ 9 Helis and Mazor called their supervisor at the East Joliet Fire Protection District, who ordered them to leave the scene and go back into service.Helis and Mazor then called Orland Central Dispatch and told them to “be advised” there was “no patient.”Helis and Mazor left the Coleman residence at 6:24 p.m.

¶ 10 After ambulance 524 left the Coleman residence, one of the neighbors who spoke with Helis and Mazor called 911 and spoke with Zan.She told Zan the paramedics were at the Coleman residence but left when no one answered the door.The neighbor asked for police to be dispatched.Shortly thereafter, another neighbor called 911 and told Zan there was an emergency at “1600 Sugar Creek Drive.”At 6:37 p.m., Zan called Orland Central Dispatch and told Eric Johnson that she had transferred a call to him earlier from a “female [who] was unable to breathe” and that “all the neighbors are calling saying that the fire department left and did nothing.”Johnson told Zan that “they were already there.”Zan responded, “[a]ll right.Well, apparently they couldn't get in the house, and they cleared from the call.We don't know if the lady is alive or dead.”Johnson attempted to dispatch a second ambulance to the Coleman residence.

¶ 11 During her conversation with Eric Johnson, Zan did not give him Coleman's complete address.She said “1600 Sugar Creek,” but the Colemans' subdivision contains both a “Sugar Creek Court” and a “Sugar Creek Drive.”At 6:40 p.m., Johnson erroneously dispatched East Joliet Fire Protection District ambulance 534 to “1600 Sugar Creek Court,” instead of “1600 Sugar Creek Drive.”The ambulance crew called Orland Central Dispatch to check the address when there appeared to be no number 1600 on Sugar Creek Court.Eric Johnson called Will County 911 for more information about the address.While Johnson spoke with a Will County dispatcher, the crew of ambulance 534 found the Coleman residence on their own.The ambulance arrived at the house at 6:51 p.m., 41 minutes after Coretta made the initial 911 call.The crew knocked on the door, but no one answered.They then called a supervisor to ask if they should force entry.Coretta's husband then arrived and let them into the house.The crew found Coretta unresponsive, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital.Coretta died of cardiac arrest brought on by a rapid onset of pulmonary edema.Coretta was 58 years old at the time of her death.

¶ 12 Coretta's surviving husband, Stanley, as administrator of Coretta's estate, filed claims for wrongful death and survival on behalf of the estate in the circuit court of Cook County.The case was subsequently transferred to Will County.Stanley died during the pendency of the proceedings, and the Colemans' son, Marcus Coleman, the successor administrator of Coretta's estate, was substituted as plaintiff in this case.

¶ 13 Counts I through XIV of plaintiff's complaint alleged willful and wanton conduct against all defendants.Counts XV through XXVIII alleged negligence “instead of willful and wanton conduct with the assumption, that may be wrong, that under the current state of the law, a negligence claim will not permit recovery due to immunity.”Plaintiff's complaint indicated the negligence allegations were made “to...