{
  "id": 2700873,
  "name": "In re Application of Mercedes C. O'Brien",
  "name_abbreviation": "In re O'Brien",
  "decision_date": "1983-11-09",
  "docket_number": "No. 84-CC-0517",
  "first_page": "368",
  "last_page": "369",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "36 Ill. Ct. Cl. 368"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. Ct. Cl.",
    "id": 8793,
    "name": "Illinois Court of Claims"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 195,
    "char_count": 2435,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.872,
    "sha256": "3948b20be8c70c45f94833e6199c8942e70f5dab241919be4980b7df09ead50c",
    "simhash": "1:3066dfa647217200",
    "word_count": 401
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:14:57.173915+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "In re Application of Mercedes C. O\u2019Brien."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Roe, C.J.\nThis claim is before this Court by reason of the death of William Patrick O\u2019Brien, a captain in the State of Illinois Department of Law Enforcement. The decedent\u2019s widow seeks compensation pursuant to the provisions of the Law Enforcement Officers and Firemen Compensation Act, (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 48, par. 281 et seq.), hereinafter referred to as the Act.\nThe Court has carefully considered the application for benefits submitted on the form prescribed and furnished by the Attorney General, a written statement of the decedent\u2019s supervising officer, and a report by the Illinois Attorney General\u2019s office.\nThe record shows that on November 13, 1982, the decedent suffered a fatal heart attack while en route to represent the State of Illinois Department of Law Enforcement at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The attack occurred while the decedent was preparing to leave Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for Atlanta after a night\u2019s lodging. The certificate of death issued by the Department of Public Health of Rutherford County, Tennessee, states that the cause of death was cardiac arrest due to coronary artery disease.\nSection 2(e) of the Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 48, par. 282(e)) provides, in relevant part, that \u201c \u2018killed in the line of duty\u2019 means losing one\u2019s life as a result of injury received in the active performance of duties as a law enforcement officer ... if the death occurs within one year from the date the injury was received and if that injury arose from violence or other accidental cause\u201d.\nThere is nothing in the record indicating that the decedent\u2019s death arose from violence or other accidental cause. No injury, or other unusual force, has been shown which might have caused the heart attack.\nWe find therefore: (a) that Captain O\u2019Brien was not killed in the line of duty as defined by section 2(e) of the Act; and (b) that the proof submitted in support of this claim does not satisfy the requirements of the Act, and the claim is therefore not compensable thereunder.\nIt is hereby ordered that the claim of Mercedes C. O\u2019Brien, as widow of William Patrick O\u2019Brien, be, and hereby is, denied.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Roe, C.J."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Mercedes C. O\u2019Brien, pro se, for Claimant.",
      "Neil F. Hartigan, Attorney General (Robert J. Sklamberg, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), for Respondent."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "(No. 84-CC-0517\nIn re Application of Mercedes C. O\u2019Brien.\nOpinion filed November 9, 1983.\nMercedes C. O\u2019Brien, pro se, for Claimant.\nNeil F. Hartigan, Attorney General (Robert J. Sklamberg, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), for Respondent."
  },
  "file_name": "0368-01",
  "first_page_order": 456,
  "last_page_order": 457
}