CHICAGO TRIBUNE
When it comes to personal-injury cases, juries in DuPage County have a reputation for being stingy. But an award of more than $2 million last week chipped away at that reputation.
After a two-week trial before Associate Judge Richard A. Lucas, a jury ruled in favor of the estate of Rosemary Schaber, who died at age 78 two days after a fall in the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Princeton and St. Charles Roads in Villa Park.
The award of $2,025,000 to Schaber’s estate was not the largest settlement in county history. However, it was $500,000 more than the Schaber family’s attorney, Christopher T. Hurley, had asked for in closing arguments.
Her family’s suit, filed in 1989, accuses the church of failing to provide proper lighting and safeguards to prevent people from falling on the stairwell.
