Legal Question in Personal Injury in Illinois
My neighbor is installing a chain link fence on the property line. The elevation of the fence is lower than the elevation of my wall at the driveway level.If a child falls of of my wall and lands on my neighbors fence top , who is liable for bodily damages?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Potentially you if you know the child is climbing on your wall, jumping off of it, and you are doing nothing about it. There are potentially other factors that could make the situation go one way or the other. But ordinarily if your neighbor has the right to install the fence, gets a proper permit and it meets local code, then on its own the mere fact that the jumping off point is your wall would not automatically make your neighbor liable. If there are more factors, such as the fact your neighbor knows the child plays on the wall and jumps off it, that may be significant, but not if the parent of the child is doing nothing to curb the activity. Negligence cases are very often based on, and limited to, their unique facts.