The HCBullet: The blog of the Attorneys at HCB

Non-Home Rule Municipalities May Create Administrative Procedures to Determine Eligibility for Benefits Under §10 of PSEBA

June 27, 2017

In December 2008, Steven Englum was employed as a police officer by the City of Charleston (City) – a non-home-rule municipality – when he was injured while exiting his police cruiser. In November 2013, Englum sent the City a letter requesting health insurance benefits under §10 of the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act (PSEBA). In…

Read More

Court Grants Discretionary Immunity in Sidewalk Defect Case

June 27, 2017

In Monson v. The City of Danville, 2017 IL App (4th) 160593, Barbara Monson tripped and fell on an uneven sidewalk seam maintained by the City of Danville. Monson required nine stitches, bruising and dental work as a result of her fall. Monson sued the City, alleging that the City’s negligence and willful and wanton…

Read More

Seventh Circuit Court Affirms Transgender Boy’s Right to Use Boy’s Restroom At School

June 7, 2017

In Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 Board of Education, et al., No. 16-3522 (7th Cir. May 30, 2017), the Seventh Circuit Appellate Court affirmed a grant of preliminary injunctive relief that allowed a transgender boy to use the boys’ restroom while at school. Ashton (“Ash”) Whitaker is a transgender high school senior….

Read More

Supreme Court Vacates $4,000,000 Verdict Against Police and Reaffirms Graham v. Connor’s “Objective Reasonableness” Test for Excessive Force Claims

June 7, 2017

On May 30, 2017, in County of Los Angeles v. Mendez,  the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a $4,000,000 award in an excessive force case. In Mendez, the police entered a house looking for an armed and dangerous criminal suspect. The suspect was not found, but the owner of the house said that a homeless couple…

Read More

Court Dismisses Inmate’s Case for Failure to Answer Discovery

May 24, 2017

Chief Judge James E. Shadid in the Central District of Illinois dismissed a pro se pre-trial detainee’s civil rights complaint in favor of a correctional officer and a nurse at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, Illinois in Buckner v. Austin, et al., No. 16-cv-2058 (C.D. Ill. 2017). Plaintiff allegedly slipped and fell in…

Read More