After earlier ruling that the owners of a Waukegan Mexican restaurant can be sued by a customer who claims they should have stopped a car from crashing through the restaurant's front window, a state appeals panel said it only makes sense that the owners of the building in which the restaurant is located should face the lawsuit, too.
A three-justice panel of the Illinois Second District Appellate Court entered an order siding with plaintiff Darius King in his attempt to continue suing business entities he claims should be made to pay for allowing him to be struck by a car while he waited for his food at the front counter of Taqueria El Paraiso in Waukegan.
In the new order, the justices rejected the attempt by a company known as P.A.A. Properties LLC to escape King's legal action. PAA owns the building in which Taqueria El Paraiso was located.
The justices said PAA, like the owners of the Mexican restaurant, owed King and other customers a duty to protect them from "the negligent acts of third parties, including foreseeable motor vehicle accidents."
"We have already decided that the facts of this case created a triable issue on the element of proximate cause with respect to El Paraiso, and we have no basis to hold differently here with respect to PAA," the justices wrote.
The decision marks the latest step in the court battle between King and the businesses he is suing over the injuries he suffered when he was struck by a vehicle while standing at the counter inside El Paraiso.
According to court documents, King was ordering food at the restaurant on North McAree Road in Waukegan in August 2020. At that time, a Nissan Murano vehicle crashed through the wall and windows at the front of the restaurant, striking and injuring King.
According to court documents, King sued the driver and settled with her.
However, King also filed suit against the restaurant company, known as El Paraiso del Pacifico Inc.
He later added PAA to the lawsuit as an additional defendant.
In the lawsuit, King claims the restaurant owners and the building owners were negligent because they allowed people to park in front of the building without putting up bollards or other protective barriers to prevent them from driving through the front windows.
In 2022, a Lake County judge sided with the restaurant and dismissed King's claims, saying that, while the restaurant owed King a duty of care, the restaurant can't be held liable for the accident, as cars aren't meant to be driven through the walls of the building and the restaurant owners couldn't have predicted such an occurrence.
However, King prevailed on appeal in 2024. In that ruling, appellate justices said they weren't finding no one was required by law to erect barriers to prevent cars from smashing through the front windows. But they said, because such measures could have been installed and were not, the restaurant could still be sued.
In the latest ruling, the justices said that same reasoning should extend to the owners of the building, PAA, as well.
PAA had prevailed in Lake County Circuit Court, just as El Paraiso had done.
But just as with El Paraiso, the appeals court said the Lake County judge again got the case wrong.
They noted the owner of PAA had installed bollards at another building he owned in Elgin, and had installed barriers around the trash enclosure in the back of the building "to protect from commercial garbage trucks." They said such facts could show PAA knew the worth of such barriers, and that they chose to ignore a "foreseeable" threat to customers at the Waukegan restaurant.
The justices noted the decision doesn't mean King will prevail on his claims. But they said it shows the lower court was wrong to rule for PAA at this point in the proceedings.
The decision was authored by Justice Christopher M. Kennedy. Justices Susan F. Hutchinson and Joseph E. Birkett concurred in the ruling. The decision was issued as an unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23, which limits its use as precedent.
Kennedy also wrote the earlier 2024 appellate ruling against El Paraiso.
King has been represented by attorneys with the firm of Bartolucci Law, of Oak Park.