On May 19, 1983, a 3-year-old Lisle boy set off a silent bank alarm in a Naperville savings and loan association office. It reportedly was the second time in a week that the child had pushed the button.
But this time, as Naperville police officer Alan Duncan was speeding in his squad car to answer the alarm, he saw a car pull out from a stop sign in his path. The officer swerved to avoid hitting the car. His car struck a telephone pole instead, and the officer suffered serious injuries, some of them permanent, his attorney said.
Thus began a legal battle that led to an Illinois Appellate Court decision in May that state municipalities believe will save them money. The municipalities hope the case, in which Duncan has sued several parties for damages, will be settled in his favor when it is reheard Oct. 28 in Du Page Circuit Court.
Duncan filed suit against Edward Rzonca, the 18-year-old car driver, and his father, Raymond, the car`s owner, both of Naperville. He also has sued Patricia Doerr, the child`s mother, and the Hinsdale Savings & Loan, in whose Naperville branch office the alarm was activated, charging they were negligent in not preventing the second false alarm.
According to court data, the alarm button was behind a desk at just the right height for a wandering 3-year-old to push it. There had been six false alarms at the office in the five months before the incident, including one set off by the same child, six days earlier.
Duncan`s attorney, Allen McDowell of McDowell & Colantoni in Chicago, said Duncan`s medical bills have been $40,000 to $50,000 so far. He is asking for $1 million in damages. Duncan suffered injuries to his right hand, back and both legs, McDowell said.
If Duncan wins a large award, the City of Naperville, which is self-insured, will collect what it would have to pay Duncan in worker`s
compensation for his injuries. Duncan was unable to work for about eight months, McDowell said Monday.
Earlier, a Du Page County circuit judge dismissed the savings and loan and the mother as defendants, but Duncan appealed. In May, the Appellate Court reversed the lower court and sent the case for retrial. The issue before the Appellate Court was whether the cause of Duncan`s injuries was the false alarm or the car accident.
Stewart Diamond, an attorney for the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, an insurance pool operated by 38 Chicago suburbs, summarized the court`s ruling in a memo to the pool members:
”The Appellate Court determined that a citizen who makes repeated claims upon the time of a police force owes a special duty to make certain that the employees of the community are not brought into a dangerous situation.”
Hinsdale Savings & Loan had argued the applicability of the ”firemen`s rule,” in which a property owner is not liable for injuries to a firefighter incurred in firefighting work on the owner`s property. But, according to Edward Hansen, the insurance pool manager, the Appellate Court said the rule does not apply when the firefighter is injured as a result of a dangerous condition on the property, such as the improper storage of gasoline barrels.
A favorable ruling for Duncan could set a precedent for municipalities, saving them thousands of dollars in compensation, Hansen said.
