# DiBenedetto v. Flora Tp.

> Appellate Court of Illinois · October 18, 1991 · 219 Ill. App. 3d 1091

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9712920

## Case

- **Full name:** SANDRA DiBENEDETTO, Special Adm’r of the Estate of Scott A. DiBenedetto, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FLORA TOWNSHIP, Defendant-Appellee
- **Court:** Appellate Court of Illinois
- **Decided:** October 18, 1991
- **Citations:** 219 Ill. App. 3d 1091; 162 Ill. Dec. 684; 580 N.E.2d 647; 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 1781
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Geiger
- **Judges:** Bowman, Geiger
- **Cited by:** 7 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9712920

## Opinion text

JUSTICE GEIGER, dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In this case, the plaintiff’s decedent was killed in an automobile accident that occurred under wet driving conditions late in January; dense fog and complete darkness further complicated the circumstances. Under these extreme driving conditions, the decedent’s plaintiff’s car crossed over the opposite lane of a 55-mile-per-hour highway and overturned.
Based on those facts I, unlike the majority, find this case to be analogous to Long v. Soderquist (1984), 126 Ill. App. 3d 1059, 1064 . In Long, we affirmed summary judgment for the defendants, finding that it was undisputed that the plaintiffs’ vehicle had slipped on an icy bridge at the crest of a hill and was therefore out of control when it collided with the defendants’ standing automobiles. ( 126 Ill. App. 3d at 1064 .) Thus, we found that regardless of their precise placement, the defendants’ vehicles could not have been a proximate cause of the collision.
Given the harsh driving conditions here, plus the fact that the decedent driver’s automobile crossed over a lane of traffic and a five- to seven-foot-wide shoulder before it came to the township’s steep ditch, I cannot agree with the majority’s observation that a reasonable fact finder in this case could infer that the plaintiff’s decedent was in control of his automobile’s movement when he drove onto the opposite shoulder of the road. Rather, I would find that the record shows as a matter of law that the decedent’s automobile was out of control before it reached the ditch. The ditch here, like the defendants’ automobiles in Long, was a mere condition connected with the accident, not a proximate cause. Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court’s dismissal with prejudice.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9712920. Public record. Not legal advice.