Posted by
Fred Nance Jr. on Monday, February 11, 2008 2:22:59 PM
February 11, 2008
Mr. Miquel del Valle, City Clerk
Office of the City Clerk
121 North LaSalle Street, Room 107
Chicago, Illinois 60602-1295
Re: Potholes in the Chicago Area
Mr. Valle:
I, Fred L Nance Jr., am writing this letter accompanying my complaint to the Office of the City Clerk because I was informed by Mr. Kevin on February 11, 2008 I had 1-year from the date of the pothole damage to my car or occurrence to file this claim with your office. I filed this claim in a timely fashion but to the wrong entity. The entity filed was the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). I was never informed of a jurisdictional issue. I have attached the complaint filed with IDOT, and its attachments, with the City of Chicago’s complaint.
I am filing this with your office because of the recent news releases by the I-Team of ABC. I informed the I-Team of my complaint with IDOT, and posted it to them on their website. I am posting this letter on my blogs also.
My incident occurred on 95th Street and Stony Island on January 10, 2006 at approximately 10:30 pm as I was going home from church. As I drove south on Stony Island, crossing 95th Street, my car engaged a tremendous pothole where my tire was blown out. I replaced the tire at Pepboys. The replacement tire cost me $64.30. I reported this to IDOT on their claims form. IDOT never told me about Chicago’s jurisdiction.
IDOT denied my claim. IDOT’s denial of my claim makes no sense. I received a letter from IDOT on January 31, 2006 stating, in part, “…The Illinois Department of Transportation discovered the pothole on Stony Island south of 95th Street at 8:28 pm on Tuesday, January 10, 2006. The Emergency Traffic Patrol driver that observed the pothole determined at that time that the pothole was not a hazard and the repair was scheduled for the next day. The pothole was repaired by the maintenance yard by 6:39 am on Wednesday, January 11, 2006….”
On May 1, 2006 I received a letter from Ms. Christine Ridge of IDOT stating, in part, “…The Department maintains over 45,000 lane miles of highway within the State with over 10,000 lane miles in District One alone. In consideration of this, the courts have consistently recognized it is not possible for the Department to have notice of every defect immediately upon its occurrence. Liability, therefore, must be determined based on our notice of a defect and lack of expedience in repairing said defect. Since in this case repairs were made within a reasonable amount of time after notification of the defect, the State of Illinois, Department of Transportation is not legally liable for your loss….”
In response to another letter written by me to Governor Blagojevich on May 7, 2006 after receipt of the May 1, 2006 correspondence from Ms. Ridge, Secretary Timothy W. Martin assigned James Sterr, Bureau Chief of Claims, to conduct an independent investigation of my claim.
On June 27, 2006 IDOT’s Mr. Sterr “further” denied my claim stating, in part, “…The Department is permitted to pay claims where it is deemed negligent and a legal liability exists. The amount of the claim is not a determining factor as to liability or compensability…Ms. Ridge’s letter explained the legal reasons why a denial was proper…That office reviewed highway incident reports for thirty (30) days prior to the alleged incident. There were no prior reports of potholes or any other defects at 95th and Stoney Island….”
It appears IDOT found various reasons to deny my claim. They did not attempt to find way to honor it.
Therefore, since there have been many claims with the City of Chicago in past days; and since I-Team’s Chuck Goudie has had his encounter with potholes in Chicago and reported it Nationally; and knowing how “quickly” your office has come to the “aid” of your constituents no matter the length of time in reporting a claim, I request to know how you view my situation. The public would also like to know to how you view my issue, because how you view my issue will impact their claims against Chicago’s pothole problem.
I will post this letter on my blogs at http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/ and http://click.townhall.com/. I will also post this letter on the I-Team’s website for review. I hope to hear from your office soon.
In addition, the consumer/public should be well aware of how our judicial system and the others who are appointed to office, to which we elect. The ones appointing these people into office are generally supporters of their candidacies. It appears on its face from my experience, that the ones elected into office and appointing those to other offices within their departments do not have their constituents in mind when making decisions.
Consumers you better beware of those you elect into offices because of their promises. Their promises become “empty” real quick. Some of these appointments to judicial positions are lifetime appointments.
Respectfully submitted,
Fred Nance Jr., ABD, MA, CADC, NCRS
cc: http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/
http://click.townhall.com/