Case Details

Plaintiff Slavko Jurcevic was a passenger in a bus on November 18, 2000, owned and operated by Five Star, a limo company. They purchased the bus used from Southern Illinois Bus, a re-seller, who had bought the bus from Madison County Transit, the original owner.

The bus was a 30', 1993 Champion Centurian, manufactured by Champion originally for the Sacramento Airport Authority. It was not sold to them, but instead to Madison County.

The bus was equipped with two doors on the "passenger side," the front door and "rear door," which was half way down the side. That door was also equipped with a wheel chair accessible lift which would fold out from the door and allow handicapped passengers access to the bus.

On the date above, Mr. Jurcevic was part of a wedding party who had rented the bus to shuttle downtown and from the wedding to the reception hall. Several stops were made to take pictures.

At one point, he was standing up in the aisle to make a toast, lost his balance and fell against the rear doors. The doors opened, and he fell onto the road with the bus in motion. He was not holding on to any hand rails and his hands were full.

The evidence at trial was that the door operating system had been altered, and was only supplying about ½ of the manufacturer recommended PSI of air pressure to the doors. In addition, the doors were not properly maintained, were out of adjustment and were not closing properly. Finally, the lift was malfunctioning, was not properly retracting and was preventing the doors from closing all the way.

All of these conditions led to the door malfunctioning and opening when he fell against it.

For Plaintiff Slavko Jurcevic: $300,000.00, with 25% of the fault, net judgment of: $225,000.00

Thor and Champion were dismissed with prejudice before the close of the plaintiffs' evidence.