(DOWNLOAD) "Fancil v. Q.S.E. Foods" by Supreme Court of Illinois * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Fancil v. Q.S.E. Foods
- Author : Supreme Court of Illinois
- Release Date : January 19, 1975
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 64 KB
Description
This is an action to recover damages for the death of plaintiff's husband. On motion of the defendant the amended complaint was dismissed by the circuit court of Crawford County for failure to state a cause of action. The appellate court reversed and remanded the cause to the circuit court. (19 Ill. App.3d 414.) We granted leave to appeal. The defendant was the owner and operator of a grocery store in Oblong, Illinois. The plaintiff's decedent was a member of the Oblong city police force. On the night of June 1, 1970, the plaintiff's decedent went to the defendant's premises for the purpose of performing a routine security check. He was attacked by burglars and fatally shot. The amended complaint alleges that prior to June 1, 1970, the defendant's premises had been the subject of attempted and actual burglaries of which the defendant knew; the decedent and other police officers of the village inspected the premises of the defendant each night as a part of their regular duties, which the defendant knew; subsequent to the prior criminal activity at the defendant's store, the defendant had erected a mercury light which provided illumination to the south of the defendant's building and to a wire enclosure attached to the south side of the building; valuable merchandise was stored within the wire enclosure, and with knowledge of the danger to decedent and other officers the defendant had disconnected the mercury light that had been used for exterior illumination. The amended complaint alleges that the defendant had thus negligently and carelessly failed to provide adequate light in the area of the enclosure, had disconnected the light, had failed to light the area at night, and had failed to make provision for inspection of the south side of defendant's buildings by police officers from the safety of their patrol car. The plaintiff alleges that, as a direct and proximate result of these negligent omissions and acts, burglars concealed themselves on the premises and ambushed the decedent while he was in the process of conducting a security check at the rear of the defendant's premises. Since we are here determining the propriety of the dismissal of the amended complaint, we must accept all properly pleaded facts as true and are concerned only with the question of law presented by the pleadings. Follett's Illinois Book and Supply Store, Inc. v. Isaacs (1963), 27 Ill.2d 600, 603.