$11 Million Verdict for Estate of Attorney Killed in Chicago Office Tower Shooting

On December 8, 2006, Joseph Jackson entered the Citigroup Center at 500 West Madison Street in Chicago armed with a revolver, a hammer, a hunting knife, and a chain and padlock. In 2002 he had hired patent attorney Michael McKenna to look into a patent for a portable toilet for truck drivers. McKenna found that similar products were already patented and told him the idea was not patentable, and Jackson came to believe McKenna had stolen it.

On the 38th floor, in the offices of the patent law firm Wood Phillips, Jackson shot and killed three people: McKenna; Allen Hoover, 65, a partner at the firm; and Paul Goodson, who worked there part time. He also wounded Ruth Zak Leib, McKenna's longtime paralegal. Chicago police SWAT officers killed Jackson at the scene.

Louise E. Hoover sued as executor of Hoover's estate. The other victims and their families brought their own suits, and all of them named the building's security contractor, AlliedBarton Security Services, and two of its employees, supervisor Sidney Chambers and officer Robert Brown. The plaintiffs said AlliedBarton had not trained its officers in duress codes that would let guards warn one another about a dangerous person. Evidence at trial showed that Chambers had seen Jackson loitering around the building over a few hours that day and testified to finding it highly suspicious how close Jackson was standing to Brown, yet did not stop the two or ask where they were going as they headed toward the office tower elevators.

The case did not go straight to a jury. Cook County Circuit Judge Kathy M. Flanagan granted summary judgment to the defendants, ruling the security company owed the victims no duty. In June 2015 the First District Appellate Court reversed, pointing to contract language that described the security work as including the safety and protection of life, and sent the cases back for trial. The Hoover suit, Louise E. Hoover v. AlliedBarton Security Services, LLC, No. 16-L-159, was consolidated with McKenna's.

Larry R. Rogers Jr. of Power, Rogers & Smith represented the Hoover estate. His colleague Joseph A. Power Jr. represented the McKenna estate and James I. Power represented Leib. Daniel M. Kotin of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman represented the Goodson estate. After a five-week trial, the jury returned its verdict in December 2017: $11 million to the Hoover estate, the second largest of four awards. The McKenna estate received $14.6 million, Leib $5.05 million, and the Goodson estate $2.8 million, for more than $33 million in all.

On the defendants' contribution claim against Jackson's estate, jurors put 40 percent of the fault on AlliedBarton and 60 percent on Jackson. Under Illinois law, a defendant found 25 percent or more at fault is jointly and severally liable for the whole award, so the split decided how the defendants share the loss and did not shrink what the families were awarded. Jurors did not find officer Brown legally responsible.