case study

Case study 2 Bart Kramer is a 33 year old resident of Chicago, IL. He works full time at the H and H Bagel Company where they allow him the scheduling flexibility to work a second job selling hot dogs at Wrigley Field in Chicago where the 1908 and 2016 world champion Chicago Cubs team plays baseball. Bart begins his second day as a hot dog vendor working for the Chicago Cubs baseball team on July 12, 2019. Randy Thompson is a 35 year old neurosurgeon from Des Moines, IA who is a huge Chicago Cubs baseball fan. On July 12, 2019, he takes a train to Union Station in downtown Chicago, walks several blocks east to State street and boards a Red Line train and gets off at the Addison Street station and enters the Wrigley Field stadium. He purchases a Cubs pencil and an official score card and takes his seat on the aisle in the fourth row of terrace reserve aisle 204. Randy is an intense baseball fan and keenly pays attention to the game and keeps a complete record of the game in the scorecard. The game reaches the 7th inning and late in the afternoon the sun has gone down enough that portions of Wrigley Field are in the sun, but other portions are in the shade including Terrace Reserve Aisle 204. Bart starts down aisle 201 which is in the sun, but encounters a more veteran hot dog vendor who tells him to “get out of my territory”. Bart quickly heads to Terrace Reserve Aisle 204 and heads up the aisle. Randy drops his pencil and first looks for it to his left, but then sees that it has landed in the aisle and leans to his right to pick it up. As Bart is making his way up the aisle, the lower right portion of Bart’s hot dog container strikes Randy at or near his left eye. The blow renders Randy unconscious and he is taken to Northwestern University Hospital. Several months later, his attorney files a petition for damages alleging negligence against Bart in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois (state court). He is alleging that he is blind in his left eye, has post concussion syndrome and that he is permanently and totally disabled. When he receives the summons, Bart turns the petition over to his insurance company who promptly hires you --- the best insurance defense attorney in the Chicagoland area. The insurance company’s investigation file has some but maybe not all of Randy’s medical bills which total $100,000. There also is an economic survey reflecting that neurosurgeons in the Des Moines, IA make an average of $750,000 per year. Strangely enough, the claims file also contains a picture of Bart and Randy immediately before the occurrence. The insurance company claims adjuster, Mr. Joe Boland, asks you to prepare an initial case evaluation and a litigation plan. In particular, you are asked your opinion on a likely outcome for the case, your estimate of a range of jury verdicts, your recommendations as to whether to make a settlement offer and if so for how much. Illinois is a comparative fault jurisdiction and the Circuit Court of Cook County, IL is well known in the legal community as being a very plaintiff friendly court. Topics to discuss are jurisdiction, removal, discovery, negligence, comparative fault and damages.

Write a letter to Mr. Boland responding to his request. No outside research is expected. Mr. Boland likes these letter/reports to be complete and provide good analysis, but not to be beyond 2-3 pages. This project will be due on October 16th.