Jacobs High School student Allison Leja of Algonquin, Illinois sued Carpentersville-based Community Unit School District 300 after she was allegedly hit in the face in the gymnasium by a volleyball net she was tightening with a crank.
Leja’s lawyer alleged her school was or should have been aware that assembling the net was dangerous based on a warning label against over-tightening attached to the crank equipment. (Read that again: The warning label was attached to the crank equipment Ms. Leja was turning at the time she was turning it.)
Her complaint also claims the school’s conduct was willful and wanton because the school knew the net had a history of “snapping back” (which is what volleyball nets are supposed to do, not collapse and fall over in a collision with a player or the ball).
More sanely, McHenry County Associate Judge Thomas A. Meyer dismissed the case, the 2nd District Appellate Court affirmed the dismissal, and the Illinois Supreme Court on March 27, 2013, denied a petition for leave to appeal.
Source: Leja v. Community Unit School District 300, 2012 IL App (2d) 120156, petition leave to appeal denied, No. 115434, March 27, 2013
David Applegate is a Chicago-based trial lawyer and partner at the law firm of Williams Montgomery & John Ltd.
