The CTA was found not liable in the death of a woman who was struck and killed by a Red Line train in 2019 after she went onto the tracks to retrieve a cellphone she dropped, an appellate court ruled.
Felon Smith, 37, dropped her phone on the tracks at the 69th Street Red Line station in Englewood on June 27, 2019, and climbed off the platform to get it. She was struck by a northbound Red Line train and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Smith was a mother of two daughters and Sincere Cole, who was shot and killed in 2022 at 15 years old, the Sun-Times reported.
Shearal Cole, Smith’s husband, sued the CTA, its conductor Philip Hamilton, AGB Investigative Services and security guard Fabeous Dowd following her death.
A Cook County circuit court ruled the CTA was not liable for her death, and the state appellate court upheld that ruling in a decision released Friday.
The court also found that the CTA also wasn’t liable for the actions of Dowd and AGB, who were not part of the appeal.
In the complaint, Cole alleged that Hamilton was negligent while driving the train and he should have seen Smith on the tracks and stopped the train before striking her, and the CTA was responsible for not properly hiring and training its conductors. In a summary judgment motion, meaning the case would be decided before going to trial, the CTA and Hamilton argued they had “no duty whatsoever owed to a trespasser” and Smith’s death was a result of her own actions.
Cole appealed the circuit court’s approval of summary judgment and argued the court erred when ruling the CTA and Hamilton had no duty to Smith. The appellate court upheld the circuit court’s siding with the CTA and Hamilton.
“The only duty that a landowner typically owes to a trespasser is to refrain from willfully and wantonly injuring them,” the decision reads. “Trespassers are owed a lesser duty because the law does not require an owner or occupier of land to anticipate the presence of people wrongfully or unexpectedly on their land.”
Through video footage of the incident and testimony, the court found evidence that Hamilton reacted immediately when he saw Smith on the tracks and cooperated with emergency personnel.