Skinner v. State

In Skinner v. State (1975), 31 Ill. Ct. Cl. 45, 50, the Court was faced with a very similar factual situation. There two cars collided at an intersection in which a stop sign was missing at the time of the accident. The Court found that the stop sign had been down for a little less than two days. The Court ruled that the condition must have existed for a sufficient length of time before the Respondent could be charged with negligence for not ascertaining or correcting the condition. The Court concluded that two days was not a sufficient amount of time to charge the State with constructive notice. The Court relied on an earlier decision, Hilden v. State (1971), No. 5652, filed May 11, 1971), which was misreported at 27 Ill. Ct. Cl. 214 as being a contracts case. There the Court held that a two-day malfunction of a traffic signal was not a sufficient length of time to hold the State liable on constructive notice.