The East St. Louis School District 189 says it is immune from liability in a student’s lawsuit alleging she slipped and fell in the high school gymnasium.
Lashanda Farmer, individually and as mother/next friend of Mikalah Farmer, filed the original complaint on Jan. 29 against East St. Louis School Board of Education and East St Louis School District 189.
Farmer then filed a first amended complaint on Feb. 3 through attorney Micah Summers of Walton Telken Foster in Edwardsville.
According to the lawsuit, Mikalah Farmer, a minor, was walking inside the gymnasium at the East St. Louis Senior High School on Feb. 3, 2015, when she allegedly slipped and fell.
She claims the floor of the gym was covered with water, creating a slipping hazard for anyone who walked on it.
The plaintiffs allege the defendants were negligent and careless by allowing a dangerous condition to exist, failing to maintain the floor, failing to fix the dangerous condition of the floor, failing to place a barricade around the dangerous area and failing to give the plaintiff adequate warning of the dangerous condition of the floor.
The East St. Louis School District filed a motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s amended complaint on Feb. 19 through attorney Garrett Hoerner of Becker Hoerner Thompson & Ysursa in Belleville. It argues that it is immune from liability according to the Illinois Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act.
The plaintiffs seek a judgment of more than $50,000, plus court costs and other relief the court deems just.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 16-L-53