No immunity for city in '03 deadly porch collapse Judge says Chicago is responsible for its building inspectors

The City of Chicago must bear responsibility for the actions oftwo building inspectors who overlooked obvious defects in a LincolnPark porch, which collapsed and killed 13 people in 2003, a CookCounty judge ruled Friday.

City attorneys tried claiming immunity from the flawed porchinspections by Michael Brennan and Henry Thomas.

But Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said because the flaws were so obviousand no citations were issued, "at the very least," the victims'families have presented enough evidence to "create a triable issue offact on whether the city has committed willful and wanton conduct" inits inspections.

"The city was saying that as the king, they couldn't be sued,"said attorney David Kupets, who represents some of the families."They wanted absolute immunity no matter how bad the conduct was."

'May be liable'

City law department spokeswoman Jenny Hoyle said they anticipatedLawrence's ruling and are making plans to request it be heard by theAppellate Court of Illinois.

Kupets called that move "very disappointing" and an effort to"drag the case on, rather than getting it to its merits."

In his ruling, Lawrence denied the city's motion to dismissnegligence claims against it, saying while city employees can't beheld "liable for ordinary negligence," they "may be liable forwillful and wanton conduct."

A lack of permits for the porch at 713 W. Wrightwood and no recordof annual inspections built a case, but the most obvious sign of"willful and wanton conduct," Lawrence said, came in statements fromthe two building inspectors.

Both said they knew all porches are to have proper supportstructures, but when their inspections were done, this porch hadnone.

Brennan said such a porch "would fall down," while Thomas said his"main focus" was to "make sure that they weren't going to collapse orweren't going to fall."

Attorney David Novoselsky, also representing families, said "thisruling says the city can be held liable when a person doesn't payattention to something that should be obvious."

Lawrence denied the families' claims that the city destroyedevidence when it tossed out the remnants of the porch, saying thecity acted as it would in an emergency.