Chicago Injury Lawyers Blog

The deadly train/car crash involving Katie Lunn at a Canadian National Railroad crossing in University Park, Illinois on April 16, 2010 raises serious questions about the safety systems in place at the international railroad company. At 9:42 p.m., Katie's vehicle was struck by a Amtrak train on Stuenkel Road near Governors Highway. The crossing is controlled by gates and lights. Witnesses to the crash have told police that the gates and lights were not working at the time of the crash. Canadian National has confirmed that its workers were working at the crossing earlier that day. The railroad has not verified the witnesses version of whether the gates and lights were working.

This incident is not the first involving malfunctioning gates and lights at Canadian National crossings. In 2001, Tim Cavanagh represented the Velarde family in the landmark case entitled Velarde v. Canadian National Railroad Company in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Mr. Cavanagh was the lead attorney that obtained a $55 million verdict for the victims of the crash. Evidence obtained by Cavanagh revealed that the railroad had known of malfunctioning gates and lights at the Army Trail Road crossing for weeks. The railroad instituted a "stop and flag" procedure at the crossing. However, a dispatcher wrongly told the engineer operating the train that the gates and lights had been fixed. Instead of the train stopping at the crossing and flagging cars to stop, the train barrelled thru at 50 miles per hour striking the Velarde vehicle.

Mr. Cavanagh also obtained a $9.1 million settlement in Ajmeri v. Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad Company only three months before the Velarde incident. On the day of the crash, an unusually harsh snow storm caused crossing lights at the Schmale Road crossing to be obscured. The crossing was owned and operated by the Canadian National. Hanifa Ajmeri was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her friend when their car was struck at the crossing by a CC&P train. Police found a crossing gate on the ground that had clearly been knocked down by a car. Railroad representatives initially claimed that the Ajmeri vehicle knocked down the crossing gate. In documents unearthed by Cavanagh in discovery (following Cavanagh's insistence on an emergency protective order of all evidence), it was revealed that the Canadian National dispatch center received a call notifying it that a crossing gate was knocked down at the Schmale Road crossing. The call was made 45 minutes before the crash. An audio tape of the call revealed that the dispatcher received the call and was required by Federal Rules to institue a "stop and flag" procedure. A "stop and flag" procedure, when implemented properly is a fail safe procedure that will avoid high speed train car crashes even at crossings with malfunctioning gates and lights. However, communication is critical. The information has to be conveyed to all approaching train crews. In the Ajmeri case, deposition testimony revealed that the dispatcher forgot to radio the trains crew. Instead of the train stopping at the crossing, the train barrelled thru at a high speed causing head and hip injuries to Mrs. Ajmeri.

The Ajmeri case was advanced to trial at the behest of Cavanagh. When opening statements were set to begin, the railroad finally succumbed and settled the case for a state record amount of $9.1 million. That record would be broken one year later when Cavanagh won the Velarde case.

On October 9, 2009, John Bruce, an employee of United Airlines (UAL), was working for UAL on a military base in Kuwait when an employee of CAV International, a South Carolina corporation hired by the United States to operate military airports, mistakenly moved a "belt loader" and catipulted John off the loader and onto the pavement of the tarmac 20-30 feet below. John suffered a devastating head injury that resulted in his death the following week. On February 2, 2010, Cavanagh Law Group was retained by the family of John Bruce. The next morning, Tim Cavanagh filed a Rule 224 Petition for Discovery in the Circuit Court of Cook County naming United Airlines and CAV International as respondents. The petition seeks all evidence in possession of UAL and CAV including videotapes, witness statements and documents relating to the CAV employee who caused John's fall. On February 5, 2010, Cavanagh appeared before the Honorable Diane Larsen, a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, seeking an order that all evidence be preserved and made available to Bruce's attorneys. Over objection of the respondent's attorneys, Judge Larsen granted Bruce's Emergency Motion for a Protective Order.

The case is entitled Patty Bruce, Personal Representative of the Estate of John Bruce v. United Airlines and CAV International, No. 2010 L 1552. The matter is set for a status hearing on March 5, 2010.

Tim Cavanagh, founder and partner of Cavanagh Law Group, has been recognized by "Leading Lawyers Network Magazine--Consumer Edition" as one of the top 100 consumer lawyers in Illinois. The magazine, published by Leading Lawyers Network, a division of Law Bulletin Publishing Company, named Cavanagh a "Leading Lawyer" for the 8th consecutive year. The honor was based on surveys conducted by Leading Lawyers Network.

The announcement by Leading Lawyers Network comes on the heels of Tim Cavanagh being named to the "Lawdragon 500" as one of the top 500 plaintiffs lawyers in the United States by Lawdragon Magazine. The magazine can be found at www.LawDragon.com.

Cavanagh Law Group is proud to announce that Tim Cavanagh has been named an Illinois Super Lawyer for 2010. Mr. Cavanagh has been recognized as a Super Lawyer every year since its inception in 2005. Matt Rundio, a partner at Cavanagh Law Group, was recognized as a "Rising Star" for the third consecutive year. Jeff Escher, an associate, was named a "Rising Star" for the first time.

Attorneys who were recognized on the Super Lawyers List were nominated by their peers. The Illinois Super Lawyers List was sponsored by Law & Politics, a legal trade journal. Lawyers in Illinois were sent ballots and asked to vote for the best lawyers they had personally observed in action. Each lawyer was given a score based on the number and types of votes received.

On May 29, 2009, attorneys from the Cavanagh Law Group representing the Estate of Dijion Sanders, a 6 year-old boy who was crushed by a garage door on May 9, 2009 on Chicago's south side, inspected the garage door and electric garage door opener involved in the incident.  Sears Roebuck & Co./The Chamberlain Group manufactured and sold the electric garage door opener.  Cavanagh Law Group had consulting experts present for the inspection.  The garage door involved in Dijion Sanders' death was not equipped with InfraRed or motion sensors that would have stopped the door from closing if a person or object was in the door's path.  Since the early 1990's the Consumer Products Safety Commission has recommended that garage doors be equipped with InfraRed or motion sensors to prevent automatic garage door opener entrapment incidents which are known and foreseeable dangers of electric garage doors.  

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has also recommended that electric garage door openers have automatic reversal mechanisms that reverse the garage door from closing when it presses on an object in its path such as a person, child's ball, or bike.  Additional inspections and testing of the Sears/Chamberlain Group electric garage door opener will take place to determine if it had an automatic reversal mechanism and, if one was present, if it malfunctioned by not reversing the garage door after Dijion Sanders was trapped.    

If electric garage door openers are manufactured and installed correctly and maintained properly, garage door entrapment injuries and deaths should not happen. 

On May 5, 2009, Timothy J. Cavanagh and Matthew M. Rundio of Cavanagh Law Group obtained a settlement of $3 million on behalf of their client, Carmen Shafer, for injuries she sustained after receiving an electric shock from the microwave oven in her kitchen.

On November 5, 2002, Plaintiff Carmen Shafer, age 30, received an electric shock when she brushed her right hand across the surface of the microwave in her kitchen at 1123 W. Washington St., Oak Park, Illinois. A post-incident inspection by the Village of Oak Park Electrical Inspector and a private electrician revealed that the electrical outlet to which the microwave was plugged in violated the village electric code because the hot and neutral poles were reversed, the outlet was not connected properly, and the outlet was not grounded. Experts agreed that the faulty outlet was the cause of the surface of the microwave oven becoming energized with electricity which caused Shafer's shock.

Defendants disputed that the incident happened and that it happened as Carmen Shafer described. Defendants contended that, if anything, Carmen Shafer received a static shock, not an electrical shock. Defendants also claimed the Construction Statute of Repose barred Plaintiffs' claims because the outlet was allegedly installed more than 10 years before the incident. The apartment building where the incident took place was owned by Defendant Society of the Divine Word and managed by Defendant Wolin-Levin, Inc.

As a result of the shock, Shafer suffers from Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome ("CRPS") in all 4 of her extremities. She has 2 spinal cord stimulators installed in her spine to control the pain. Shafer has received medical treatment from numerous specialists and pain care practitioners. Plaintiff Jason Shafer claimed damages for the loss of consortium of his wife. The Shafers were married just months before the incident.

Defendants disputed that Shafer suffered any injury and that she had chronic pain. Defendants also contended that Shafer was malingering and fabricating her pain condition.

The case, Shafer v. Wolin-Levin, Inc. and Society of the Divine Word, Cook County Case No. 03 L 6779, had been pending before Circuit Court of Cook County Judge Marcia Maras since January 2008 for intensive case management, including approximately 26 substantive motions that were briefed, argued, and ruled on. The case was set for trial on May 5, 2009.

On May 13, 2009, Timothy J. Cavanagh and Matthew M. Rundio of Cavanagh Law Group filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of Dijion Sanders, age 6. Dijion was killed on May 9, 2009, when the garage door at 9228 S. Saginaw Avenue, Chicago, Illinois closed on his body.

The lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The lawsuit named Sears Roebuck & Company, the manufacturer of the garage door opener, Mid America Door Company, the company that installed the garage door and Darrell Washington, the owner of the property as defendants. The complaint alleges that the garage door opener should have been equipped with an electronic sensor to stop a garage door from crushing a child.

Tomorrow morning, Cavanagh Law Group will present an Emergency Motion to Preserve Evidence requesting that the garage door, garage door opener and all pertinent evidence be preserved. The purpose of the Motion is to ensure that the court retains jurisdiction over all pertinent evidence so that it is preserved for the civil trial.

Tim Cavanagh stated:

Dijion was a happy young boy surrounded by a loving family. This tragedy could have been avoided had the garage door opener come equipped with a sensor to stop the garage door from crushing the body of an innocent 6 year old boy.

Dijon is survived by his parents, Angela C. Washington-Sanders and Marshall D. Sanders, and six siblings.  Services are pending.

The case is entitled Angela C. Washington-Sanders and Marshall D. Sanders, Co-Special Administrators of the Estate of Dijion Sanders, Deceased v. Darrell Washington, Mid-America Door Company and Sears Roebuck & Company 09 L 5674.