The Illinois Supreme Court Makes Clear:“You’ve Got to Have Heart. All You Really Need is Heart”1
(Or at Least You Must Use an Available Defibrillator)
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BY JEFFREY BERMAN
itness centers and clubs in their various forms and iterations seemingly are almost as ubiquitous these days as dandelions after spring rains. In what should be viewed as a stern warning to these kinds of omnipresent businesses to up their level of training and preparedness for customer calamities, on May 19, 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in a personal injury case2 holding that a fitness center will face liability claims for failing to come to the aid of a patron who suffered a medical emergency by using an available Automated External Defibrillator (“AED”).3
The main question presented in the case was whether a physical fitness facility has a duty under either the Physical Fitness Facility Medical Emergency Preparedness Act (Facility Preparedness Act)4 or the Automated External Jeffrey Berman Defibrillator Act (AED Act)5 to use of the law firm an AED when a patron is having an of Anderson + Wanca has apparent cardiac event and non-use extensive of the AED would amount to willful 123
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J erry Ross, Richard Adler, “Heart,” Damn Yankees. https://www.lyricsondemand.com/ soundtracks/d/damnyankeeslyrics/heartlyrics.html. 2 Dawkins v. Fitness International, LLC, 2022 IL 127561. 3 An AED can diagnose ventricular fibrillation and treat it through defibrillation by electrical therapy. Id. at ¶ 6. 4 210 ILCS 74/1 et seq. (2012). 5 410 ILCS 4/1 et seq. (2012).
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The Docket
and wanton misconduct.6 Leo Dawkins (“Dawkins” or “Plaintiff ”), individually and as next friend of his wife, Dollett Smith Dawkins (“Dollet”), filed a complaint for personal injury and spousal loss of consortium against Fitness International LLC, LA Fitness, and LA Fitness Oswego (“LA Fitness”). The Plaintiff ’s operative pleading alleged experience in causes of action for both negligence commercial and willful and wanton misconduct litigation, class based on LA Fitness employees’ actions and insurance covfailure to use an available AED as reerage litigation quired by statute, even though there in state and was an employee trained to use the federal courts across the country. He is Co-Editor of the Docket and currently serves as the Secretary of the LCBA Board of Trustees.
6 Dawkins v. Fitness Int’l, LLC, 2022 IL 127561, at ¶ 1.
