A woman is suing a business and its employee as an estate administrator on wrongful death charges in a 2013 pedestrian-automobile accident that claimed her mother’s life.
Halina Gabrys, as special administrator of the estate of Bronislawa Zajac, brought a lawsuit against Accurate Office Supply and James Rudzinski on Sept. 8 in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging that Rudzinski killed the plaintiff in December 2013.
The suit states that Zajac was within a pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Narragansett and 63rd streets in Chicago on or about Dec. 12, 2013, when Rudzinski, operating his employer’s truck, struck Zajac, who died that same day.
The defendants are charged with driving the vehicle too fast for existing conditions, driving while intoxicated or impaired, failing to keep a proper lookout, slow down, and control the vehicle to avoid further injury following impact; and failing to brake, sound his horn or yield the right of way.
According to the complaint, Zajac’s surviving next of kin, including the plaintiff, her brother and father, and the decedent’s husband, have been deprived of their loved one’s company, support and care. Charging the defendants with negligence, willful and wanton conduct, negligent entrustment and wrongful death, and invoking the Illinois Survival Act, Illinois Family Expenses Act, the plaintiff demands damages in excess of the minimum jurisdictional amount, plus attorneys’ fees and costs. She is represented by John R. Wienold & Associates in Aurora.
Cook County Circuit Court case number 2015009513