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Bailey v. Allstate Development Corporation9/29/2000
Plaintiff, Earl Bailey, filed a first amended complaint against defendants Allstate Development Corporation and Allstate Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to collectively as Allstate or defendants) seeking damages for injuries sustained when plaintiff fell from a ledge while washing windows at Allstate's corporate office building in Northbrook, Illinois. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on the grounds that plaintiff's original complaint was filed more than two years after the occurrence and thus outside the statute of limitations period generally applicable to personal injury claims. 735 ILCS 5/13-202 (West 1998). The trial court rejected plaintiff's argument that his cause of action was governed by the extended four-year statute of limitations period set forth in the construction section of the Limitations Act (Act) (735 ILCS 5/13-214(a) (West 1998)). In ruling, the trial court did not address plaintiff's argument that a prior judge's denial of defendants' motion to dismiss precluded a subsequent grant of summary judgment on the same issue. We affirm the circuit court and find that: (1) a successor judge's grant of summary judgment is proper, absent a change in facts or circumstances, when a prior judge's order denying a defendant's motion to dismiss was not a ruling on the merits, and (2) plaintiff's cause of action is governed by the two-year statute of limitations generally applicable to personal injury claims because, as a matter of law, the performance of window washing services does not constitute the "construction of an improvement to real property" within the meaning of the Limitations Act (735 ILCS 5/13-214(a) (West 1998)).
I. BACKGROUND
On July 11, 1991, Earl Bailey sustained severe injuries when he fell from the window ledge of an Allstate corporate office building. At the time of the accident, plaintiff was employed by Standard Window Cleaning Company/Millard Maintenance Service (Millard), which had contracted with defendants to perform window washing services on certain buildings owned and operated by defendants in Northbrook, Illinois . In order to perform his work, plaintiff was required to wet down windows while standing on an outdoor ledge. After the window was wet, plaintiff's co-worker squeegeed the window to remove the water. Neither plaintiff nor his co-worker was wearing a safety belt at the time of the accident. Defendants specifically required safety belts to be worn by all persons performing window washing work on outdoor ledges.
Plaintiff's original complaint was filed in 1995, almost four years after plaintiff was injured. On May 4, 1995, plaintiff filed a first amended complaint against defendants which alleged a violation of the Structural Work Act (740 ILCS 150/0.01 et seq. (West 1994)) in Count I and negligence in count II. Specifically, plaintiff alleged that safety belts, owned by defendants, were available on the Allstate premises but that defendants failed to provide workers with adequate access to them. Plaintiff further alleged that defendants knowingly allowed workers to stand on outdoor ledges while washing building windows without using any safety equipment.
On July 10, 1995, defendants filed a motion to dismiss count II of plaintiff's first amended complaint on the pleadings. In their motion, defendants argued that plaintiff's negligence action was time-barred pursuant to section 13-202 of the Limitations Act because it was filed after the two-year statute of limitations had expired. 735 ILCS 5/13-202 (West 1998). In response, plaintiff asserted that his first amended complaint alleged a cause of action arising out of a construction-related activity and was therefore governed by the four-yea
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