Smith v. Tri-R Vending

Plaintiff, Charles Smith, Sr., as special administrator of the estate of Charles Smith, Jr. (Smith), appeals a grant of summary judgment for defendants, Tri-R Vending and its employee, Luis Cotto. Plaintiff sued under the Wrongful Death Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 70, pars. 1 through 2.2), alleging that Smith was a passenger in a truck that Cotto negligently drove into a light pole, causing Smith’s death.

In their reply and in their motion for summary judgment, defendants alleged that, at the time of the incident, Smith was illegally trespassing on the truck and that Cotto neither owed nor…