Ondes v. State of Illinois

In Ondes v. State of Illinois 43 Ill. Ct. Cl. 272 (1991), the claimant was a Southern Illinois University student who brought a premises liability claim against the State for injuries he sustained from gymnasium light fixtures which he alleged were defective and prone to breaking. Id. On the date of his incident, claimant went to the gymnasium and decided to stretch out before playing basketball. Id. at 274. He chose to hang on one of the light fixtures in order to stretch, because he had seen other students stretch in the same manner on previous occasions. When claimant went to grab the light fixture bar it broke, whereupon claimant fell on his back and the bar fell on his face. Id. at 275. Even though Claimant was not able to allege a precise defect in the fixtures, he presented evidence of similar prior incidents of which the University had notice. Specifically, University maintenance crews had to go to the gymnasium on at least seven different occasions prior to the claimant's incident in order to repair and replace broken light fixtures. Id. The Ondes court found that these incidents provided the University with notice that the gymnasium light fixtures were defective. The University's failure to warn of the danger was a breach of the duty it owed to gymnasium users. Id. at 278. Thus, the Ondes Court held that there was sufficient evidence that the gymnasium light fixtures were defective even though a specific defect was not identified.