Byron
Pizza Hut of America has asked Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron to dismiss attorney Amanda Verett's claim that she suffered an injury while walking out the door at the Pizza Hut in Troy.
Pizza Hut attorney Andrew Miller of Hinsdale wrote in a March 5 answer to Verett's complaint that she bears most of the responsibility for her alleged injuries.
"Plaintiff's claims may be barred, in whole or in part, by her own contributory or comparative negligence," Miller wrote.
Attorney Thomas Maag filed Verett's suit last year, naming Clarence Jackson, Pizza Hut of America and One-O-Nine Company as defendants.
Maag claimed Jackson injured Verett as he opened the door.
Jackson did not answer the suit, so Byron granted default judgment to Verett.
Jackson, upon receiving the judgment, moved to vacate it.
He informed Byron that he was a Troy police officer on duty when he opened the door. He stated that he thought the city would defend him.
Byron vacated the order.
Maag asked the Fifth District appellate court to reinstate the default judgment, but the Fifth District refused.
Jackson then moved to dismiss.
Now Pizza Hut of America, on the sidelines all the while, enters the case.
As for One-O-Nine Company, attorney Miller claims it doesn't exist. It merged into Pizza Hut of America in 2005, he wrote in his answer to the complaint.
Byron has set an April 4 hearing on Jackson's motion to dismiss.