Alwin v. The Village of Wheeling

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Illinois

Court: 1st District Appellate

Docket No: 1-04-0154 Rel

Case Date: 03/12/2007

Preview:No. 1-04-0154

FIRST DIV. Filed: 3/12/07

KALYN ALWIN and DEVIN KOPPIE, Co-Administrators of the Estate of Martin Larry Koppie, Deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. THE VILLAGE OF WHEELING, THE CITY OF PROSPECT HEIGHTS, and PALWAUKEE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT COMMISSION, Defendants-Appellants (Albert-Culver USA, Inc., Alberto-Culver International, Inc., and Alberto-Culver Company, Defendants and Third-Party Plaintiffs-Appellees; Aon Aviation, Inc., Third-Party Defendant-Appellee).

) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County.

Nos.

97 L 13527, 97 L 13636, 97 L 13715 & 97 L 13716

Honorable ) Thomas E. Flanagan, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE ROBERT E. GORDON delivered the opinion of the court: In October 1996 a private jet aircraft crashed while attempting a takeoff from Palwaukee Municipal Airport (Palwaukee). The plane was consumed by flames. All four persons on board (two pilots, a flight attendant and one passenger) were killed. Palwaukee is owned by defendants Village of Wheeling and City of Prospect Heights and is managed through defendant Palwaukee Municipal Airport Commission (collectively, municipal defendants). The plane was owned by defendant Alberto-Culver USA, Inc., and/or defendant Alberto-Culver International, Inc., and/or defendant Alberto-Culver Company (Alberto-Culver). One of the pilots, Robert Whitener, was employed by Alberto-Culver, and the

No. 1-04-0154 other, Martin Larry Koppie, was employed by Aon Aviation, Inc. The passenger, Arthur Quern, was an employee of Aon Risk Services, Inc., and an executive of Aon Corporation. (The flight was intended to transport Quern to Burbank, California.) Aon Aviation had secured the services of the flight attendant, Catherine Anderson. The estates of the four decedents (Koppie, Whitener, Quern and Anderson) brought wrongful death and survival actions in the circuit court of Cook County against, inter alia, municipal defendants and Alberto-Culver. These actions were consolidated for trial. Prior to trial, Alberto-Culver settled with two of the four decedents' estates (Anderson and Quern) on behalf of Alberto-Culver and Aon Aviation, but not municipal defendants. Alberto-Culver subsequently filed contribution claims against Aon Aviation in the Anderson and Quern cases.1 Also prior to trial, the circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of municipal defendants on their claim of immunity under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (Act) (745 ILCS 10/1-101 et seq. (West 2002)). This decision effectively removed municipal defendants from the litigation. The plaintiffs and Alberto-Culver appealed under Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (155 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)). While this appeal was pending, trial began on the claims of the remaining two decedents' estates (Whitener against Aon Aviation, and Koppie against Alberto-Culver). In January 2001, the circuit court entered judgment on a jury

1

The circuit court subsequently ruled in favor of Alberto-Culver on its contribution

claims. This ruling was not appealed, and the contribution claims are not before this court for review. 2

No. 1-04-0154 verdict in favor of the Whitener estate in the amount of $18.9 million. However, the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked" on the Koppie case, and the circuit court declared a mistrial. Meanwhile, in December 2000 this court reversed the circuit court's previous granting of summary judgment in favor of municipal defendants. Anderson v. Alberto-Culver USA, Inc., 317 Ill. App. 3d 1104 (2000). Municipal defendants filed a petition for leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. On April 4, 2001, the petition was denied. Anderson v. Alberto-Culver USA, Inc., 194 Ill. 2d 565 (2001). Following this denial, the appellate court issued its mandate, and municipal defendants were brought back into the litigation. The Koppie estate's claims against municipal defendants and Alberto-Culver were tried before a jury beginning in February 2003. On May 5, 2003, the jury found in favor of the Koppie estate and against municipal defendants and Alberto-Culver in the amount of $11 million. In allocating the relative fault of the parties, the jury found that municipal defendants were 90% at fault, and Alberto-Culver and "Martin Larry Koppie/Aon Aviation, Inc." were each 5% at fault. On May 6, 2003, the circuit court entered judgment on this verdict. The circuit court denied municipal defendants' posttrial motions. Municipal defendants appeal. We affirm the judgment of the circuit court. BACKGROUND In its opinion in Anderson, this court stated the factual background regarding the crash: "On October 30, 1996, a Gulfstream G-IV aircraft, registered to Alberto-Culver and piloted by Martin Larry Koppie and Robert Hampton Whitener, crashed while attempting its takeoff from Runway 16/34 at Palwaukee. Two other people, Arthur F. 3

No. 1-04-0154 Quern, a passenger, and Catherine Anderson, the flight attendant, were aboard the airplane at the time of the fatal accident. After the pilots had received clearance for takeoff, the airplane began to roll down the runway, but started to veer to the left side of the runway in the middle of its takeoff roll. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the aircraft rolled onto the grass off to the left side of the runway, traversing a shallow ditch that paralleled the runway, which resulted in the separation from the aircraft of landing gear, flight control surfaces and other airplane components. The ditch was about 2

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