Patch Readers Slam Lawsuit Against Shorewood-Troy Library

SHOREWOOD, IL - Adam Zayed is a notable Joliet personal injury attorney, but the immediate reaction from Shorewood and Joliet Patch readers to his civil lawsuit against the Shorewood-Troy Public Library isn't going to win Zayed or his client, Ernest F. Flanagan, any popularity contests. This week's civil case accuses Shorewood's library staff of several counts of negligence and wanton and willful misconduct. It's a slip and fall personal injury lawsuit, and Flanagan seeks "in excess of $50,000," Zayed's four-page complaint filed at the Will County Courthouse states.

Flanagan was a patron at the library last September 22. While there, "a spring-loaded library cart was placed and or left in an area of the Defendant's Premises that would create confusion for library patrons," the lawsuit indicated. Next, Flanagan "while distracted and or preoccupied ... leaned against the spring-loaded library cart and said cart collapsed." Flanagan "suffered injuries of a permanent, personal and pecuniary nature."

This past week, over a two-day period, Zayed chose not to return repeated messages left by Patch in regard to his new lawsuit against Shorewood-Troy Public Library.

On Friday, after Patch published a lawsuit story about the library cart, numerous readers of the Patch leveled blistering criticism against Zayed and his client on Facebook. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Here's a summary of comments from an array of Patch readers:

• So an idiot who decided it would be a good thing to lean against a cart on wheels is going to make money off of this? He ought to be ashamed of himself.
• He leaned on a cart, it collapsed and he got hurt. Umm carts on wheels are not made to be leaned against, they are for moving items from one place to another, this is just a money grab.
• He & his attorney should be ashamed. Libraries are barely able to stay afloat with their minimal funding. Does he want to close the library & ruin things for all the people of Shorewood?
• So an inanimate object hurt the distracted moron. What's next, the toaster making fun of him because when the bread comes out it looks like it's sticking it's tongue it at him?
• This is one of those articles that make me wish for an "eye roll" button.
• This is crap! Leave Shorewood Library alone!
• Ambulance chaser!!!!
• Sadly, our judicial system no longer throws any cases out. The crazy, money grubbing scum, who falsely sue, always win because litigation is too costly and insurance companies have to settle to save legal costs.
• This is just ridiculous! First of all he shouldn't even be leaning on any carts in the library. That's not what they're there for. They're there to hold books, not people. And second of all that is the best Library I have ever been too! The people are awesome, it's clean and my kids have always loved the children's Department.

One regular social media commenter on Joliet Patch articles who goes by the Facebook moniker of "The Road Lawyer" offered a legal perspective.

Main image via Patch Editor John Ferak

Library image via Google Maps