Granite City school denies negligence in minor boy’s slip on ice

 

A Granite City school is denying allegations against it in a Granite City mother’s lawsuit that claims her son fell on ice at school.

According to the complaint filed Sept. 18, Chance Kloepper was trying to enter Gringsby Middle School on Jan. 3 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.

Granite City Community School filed its answer on Nov. 1 denying the allegations and stating 16 affirmative defenses against the plaintiff.

It states that any damages the plaintiff may have experienced “were caused in whole or in part by plaintiff’s own negligence and, therefore, any recovery by plaintiff should be reduced and proportioned.”

The school also claims immunity under the Local Government and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act and well as provisions of the Illinois School Code.

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

Madison County Circuit Judge Andreas Matoesian scheduled a case management conference for Dec. 18 at 9 a.m.

Samuel A. Mormino, Jr. of Mormino, Velloff & 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