Tzakis v. Maine Township

Plaintiffs filed suit in 2009 against several local public entities concerning flood damage to their property after heavy rains in September 2008. The public duty rule applies to all of Defendants' alleged conduct, and the new law, set forth in Illinois Supreme Court's 2016 Coleman decision, which abolished the common-law public duty rule, applies only prospectively. At the time of the alleged conduct, the public duty rules existed. A prospective application of the Coleman decision is proper and would avoid substantial inequitable results for Defendants who have relied upon the public duty rule throughout the long course of this litigation. To the extent that Plaintiffs allege that Defendants failed to provide adequate public services in the design, maintenance, improvement, and/or operation of the stormwater system, that duty ran to the public at large and not to individual members of the public such as Plaintiffs. Thus, the public duty rule bars Plaintiffs' claims. (A. BURKE, GARMAN, KARMEIER, NEVILLE, and M. BURKE, concurring.)