United States Seventh Circuit

In a personal injury action, district court's grant of defendants' motion for summary judgment is affirmed where: 1) district court properly granted summary judgment to defendant-business owner, as plaintiff has not presented any evidence that the fall was a result of an unnatural accumulation of ice or an aggravation of an existing condition; 2) district court properly granted summary judgment to defendant-property owner, as mere presence of snow and ice does not demonstrate negligence; and 3) there is no evidence that the ice was anything other than a natural accumulation, and as the duty to maintain a safe ingress and egress does not include the removal of natural accumulations of ice, there is no viable claim here.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/13/2009
• Decided 09/04/2009
• Published 09/04/2009

Judges

• ROVNER, Circuit Judge., Before KANNE, ROVNER and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Steven J. Sersic (argued), Kevin C. Smith, Rubino, Ruman, Crosmer, Smith, Sersic & Polen, Dyer, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert M. Burke, Jr. (argued), Heineke & Burke, Todd E. Carlson, Grant, Ross & Fanning, Jennifer Moriarty (argued), Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.