Granite City Middle School seeks to add affirmative defenses after recent discovery

A Granite City school seeks to add affirmative defenses to its answer in a mother’s lawsuit claiming her son fell on ice at school.

Gringsby Middle School on Dec. 13 filed a motion to leave in order to file additional affirmative defenses due to recent discovery.

Madison County Circuit Judge Andreas Matoesian scheduled a case management conference for March 26 at 9 a.m.

According to the complaint filed Sept. 18, Chance Kloepper was trying to enter the school on Jan. 3, 2013, around 8:50 a.m. when he slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk. The ice allegedly formed from the drainage of an exterior gutter, Kloepper’s mother, Pamela Branscum, claims.

The Granite City school is accused of negligently failing to maintain its premises in a safe condition, failing to monitor the sidewalk to prevent unnatural accumulations of snow and ice, failing to clean unnatural accumulations of snow and ice and installing a downspout that allowed ice to accumulate on the sidewalk.

The plaintiff seeks a judgment of more than $50,000.

Samuel A. Mormino, Jr. of Mormino, Belloff & Snider of Alton represents the plaintiff.

Donald J. Ohl of Knapp, Ohl & Green in Edwardsville represents Granite City Community Unit School District #9.

Madison County Circuit Court case number 13-L-1586