GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY

In 1965, the Illinois Supreme Court abolished the doctrine of "sovereign immunity," which provided that the government could not be sued for the harm it caused in the way that a private citizen could. In order to protect the government from lawsuits and to ensure that public money was not spent on damage awards, the legislature then enacted the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (the "Act"), which restricted the number and kinds of lawsuits that could be brought against the government or its employees. The operation of the Act can be extremely complicated, as two recent cases illustrate.

The first case arose out of a stampede in a Chicago nightclub that killed or injured dozens of people. Many of the injured and their families sued the city, alleging that the cause of the stampede was the city's failure to enforce its building codes (governing the number of exits required) and to provide adequate police protection. The city argued that it was immune from suit under the Act, and the Illinois court agreed. It ruled that the Act, which precluded suits arising out of a failure to "enforce any law" or to "provide adequate police protection," barred the lawsuits arising out of the tragedy.

However, a similar argument did not work for the City of Park Ridge, which was sued when a minor died from a drug overdose. The mother of the child alleged that the EMTs and the firemen who responded to the 911 call did not evaluate the victim or take him to the hospital for treatment. The city tried to dismiss the suit, arguing that it was immune under the Act. This time, the Illinois Supreme Court disagreed. It found that the case was governed by a different statute, the EMS Systems Act, because it was both more recent and more specific than the Act. Because it was subject to a different law, the trial court's order dismissing the claims under the Act was improper.

As these cases show, the question of when the government may be sued and when it is immune from suit can be a very complicated one.