Is An Accident In a Parking Lot Considered ''Recreational Use'' ?

In Rexroad v. City of Springfield, 207 Ill. 2d 33, 796 N.E.2d 1040, 277 Ill. Dec. 674 (2003), the plaintiff was a high school football team manager who fell in an excavation area in the school parking lot, located between the football field and the gymnasium. The plaintiff traversed the lot when he was returning to the field after retrieving a helmet from the gym, at the direction of a coach. Rexroad, 207 Ill. 2d at 37. The supreme court held that the parking lot served several nonrecreational areas of the school and that section 3--106 did not apply because any recreational use of the parking lot was incidental. Rexroad, 207 Ill. 2d at 41, 43. In Johnson v. City of Chicago, 347 Ill. App. 3d 638, 640, 807 N.E.2d 1100, 283 Ill. Dec. 259 (2004), the plaintiff was injured on a sidewalk surrounding a library parking lot when the gate from the fence surrounding the lot fell on him. The court held that section 3--106 did not apply. The court rejected as tenuous the defendant's argument that the library was recreational property, the usefulness of which was increased by the adjacent parking lot, the usefulness of which was increased by the sidewalk surrounding the lot. Johnson, 347 Ill. App. 3d at 641.