MOUNT VERNON – Fifth District Justice John Barberis recused himself from a St. Clair County case after ruling on it, but the result didn’t change.
His substitute, Justice Thomas Welch, joined Justice Randy Moore in throwing out a jury verdict against Pilot Travel Center of East St. Louis.
Jurors awarded Reona Pearson $560,563.88 for injuries she suffered when a nine-inch roll of toilet paper fell on her.
Circuit Judge Christopher Kolker entered judgment on the verdict, but Moore and Barberis reversed him in January.
Justice Milton Wharton dissented.
Pearson challenged the decision, claiming Barberis should have recused himself.
She hadn’t raised the issue earlier because parties in Illinois appellate courts don’t know who will decide a case until oral argument.
Barberis granted recusal and Welch took the case.
He read briefs, listened to argument, and essentially affirmed Barberis.
The state court website blocked the earlier decision and moved it whole to May 18, with no apparent change beyond a footnote about substitution.
Pearson worked at Denny’s, where employees used Pilot’s public restroom.
On a night shift in 2016, she opened a stall and the roll hit the top of her head.
It weighed about two pounds.
At trial, engineer Benjamin Fischer testified for Pearson that the only reason for the roll to be in its position was a prank.
Pilot general manager Jamie Abbott testified that pressing issues commonly interfered with a policy of hourly restroom maintenance.
She said Pilot had 28 pumps, 202 parking spaces for trucks, 15 showers, four restrooms, faxes and transfers, Cinnabon, Denny’s, lounge and game room.
Jurors awarded $407,411 for past and future medical expenses and $153,122.68 in other damages.
On appeal, Moore and Barberis found a booby trap wasn’t reasonably foreseeable.
Moore wrote that the identity of the individual who caused the injuries wasn’t known, and he found no evidence relating to how Denny’s and Pilot coexisted.
Dissenter Wharton, like Welch, entered the case after oral argument.
He replaced Justice Melissa Chapman, who retired.
He wrote that the question was whether it was reasonably foreseeable that a patron might place a roll of toilet paper anywhere it might pose a risk.
Pearson moved for rehearing in February.
Thomas Rich of Belleville wrote for her that Barberis, as a former workers’ compensation judge, reversed a decision awarding benefits to Pearson for the same injury.
Pearson got a different judge but didn’t get rehearing.
Thomas Rich, Michelle Rich, and Kristina Cooksey of Fairview Heights represent Pearson.
John Cooney and Justin Zimmerman of Lewis Brisbois in Edwardsville represent Pilot.