delivered the opinion of the court:
Plaintiff, Vinnie F. Abdo, individually, and as special administrator of the estate of her husband, Jamal A. Abdo, and for the use and benefit of both herself and their children, appeals the judgment of the circuit court dismissing with prejudice those counts of her amended complaint against defendant, Forgings & Stampings, Inc. (F&S), for failure to stаte a cause of action for negligence. Plaintiff alleged that F&S, as the owner of certain commercial property, had the duty to insure that deliveries to and pickups from its facility were made in a safe manner and had breached that duty, which re-suited in the death of plaintiffs husband. Thе circuit court found that F&S had no such duty and dismissed those counts of plaintiff’s complaint that related to F&S. We affirm.
Between 4:50 and 5 a.m. on May 22, 1990, plaintiff’s decedent was killed when his car struck and went under a semitractor and flatbed trailer (semitruck), which was stopped across 23d Avenue. Defendants, Trek Transpоrtation Company, Inc., Charles H. Rex and Ronald Robnett were the owner, lessee, and operator of the semitruck, respectively, and are not concerned with this appeal. F&S’ property, which was a commercial facility, was located on the north side of 23d Avenue, aсross from the “T” intersection of Seventh Street with 23d Avenue. F&S’ sole driveway and dock were located to the east of its building, which was also just east of and across from Seventh Street. The semitruck carrying a delivery for F&S had traveled west on 23d Avenue and then, through a series of maneuvers, backed across 23d Avenue so that it was facing south with its trailer backed into F&S’ driveway and dock. Thus positioned, the semitruck then stopped and entirely blocked both the west and eastbound lanes of 23d Avenue. Plaintiff’s decedent was traveling east on 23d Avenue at the time of the collision with the stopped semitruck.
Plaintiff alleged that F&S routinely used 23d Avenue for the ingress and egress of trucks to F&S’ driveway and dock to make pickups and deliveries and that F&S had instructed trucks to use 23d Avenue for such purposes. Specifically, plaintiff alleged that F&S was negligent in failing to illuminate its loading dock, placing materials in its driveway that obstructed and impeded the driver’s attempts to enter the loading dock, failing to provide warning lights or signals for oncoming traffic when a truck blocked 23d Avenue, locating its driveway too close to the intersection with Seventh Street, failing to provide alternate means of ingress and egress for trucks to its рroperty, causing and requiring trucks to violate State traffic statutes to gain entrance to its property, and failing to instruct its employees to stop traffic when 23d Avenue was blocked.
F&S moved for dismissal of the counts against it pursuant to section 2 — 615 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, eh. 110, рar. 2 — 615) for failing to state a cause of action because F&S had no duty to plaintiff’s decedent. The circuit court granted F&S’ motion, but allowed plaintiff to amend her complaint. F&S again moved to dismiss the counts of plaintiff’s amended complaint that sought recovery from F&S based on its alleged duty as a landowner, which the circuit court again granted finding that there was “no just reason to delay enforcement or appeal” pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (134 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)). Subsequent to plaintiff’s filing her notice of appeal, the other defendants moved to vacate the court’s order, which was denied. Plaintiff filed a second noticе of appeal to insure our jurisdiction, which resulted in this consolidated appeal.
On a motion to dismiss, all well-pleaded facts must be regarded as true and all reasonable inferences drawn in favor of the plaintiff. (Burdinie v. Village of Glendale Heights (1990),
The principles that guide our consideration of this appeal have been often stated. Common-law negligence consists of a duty flowing from the defendant to the plaintiff, breach of that duty, and proximate cause of an injury to the plaintiff. (Gouge v. Central Illinois Public Service Co. (1991), 14.
Our supreme court has very recently twice addressed the question of the duty of a property owner to those using an adjacent highway. (See Gouge,
Our discussion of a landowner’s duty toward travelers on adjacent roadways must begin with section 368 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (Restatement (Second) of Torts §368 (1965)), which has guided Illinois courts considеring such issues. (Ziemba,
“A possessor of land who creates or permits to remain thereon an excavation or other artificial condition so near an existing highway that he realizes or should realize that it involves an unreasonable risk to others accidentally brought into contact with such condition while traveling with reasonable care upon the highway, is subject to liability for physical harm thereby caused to persons who
(a) are traveling on the highway, or
(b) fórese eably deviate from it in the ordinary course of travel.” (Restatement (Second) of Torts §368, at 268 (1965).)
Two corollaries to this rule are urged by plaintiff as imрortant to our consideration of the issue herein raised. The first is that an owner of a premises owes a duty to an invitee to use ordinary care to have the premises in a reasonably safe condition for use in a manner consistent with the invitation. (Swett v. Village of Algonquin (1988),
However, plaintiff’s decedent was not injured as a result of contact with an аrtificial condition on F&S property near the highway so as to fall within the landowner’s duty imposed by the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Nor was he an invitee of F&S so as to benefit from a duty imposed on F&S to provide safe means of ingress and egress. Thus, we find these cases urged by plaintiff inapposite.
Rather, plaintiff seeks to impose on F&S a duty to insure that F&S’ invitees utilize the provided means of ingress and egress in a reasonably safe manner. But this addresses not the foreseeability of an injury resulting from a condition of a landowner’s property, but rather resulting from the alleged negligent actions of another.
Thus, defendant owed plaintiff’s decedent a duty only if it was reasonably foreseеable that a truck driver would violate his statutory duties when backing into defendant’s driveway and dock. (See Ziemba,
In Ziemba, the plaintiff, who was riding a bicycle on a roadway adjacent to the defendant landowner’s property, was injured when a dump truck exited the defendant landowner’s driveway without warning and failed to yield the right of way to traffic on the roadway. (Ziemba,
Our supreme court found that the condition of the plaintiff landowner’s property was not dangerous absent the intervening negligence of the truck driver. (Ziemba,
However, plaintiff alleges that F&S caused and required the truck driver to violate his statutory duties to gain entrance to F&S’ facility. Most of such statutory violations are alleged by plaintiff in conclusory fashion, which we do not consider. (Burdinie,
Notwithstanding such omissions, however, certain facts alleged support an inference that the driver’s breach of his statutory duties was a foreseeable result of the alleged condition of F&S’ property. Specifically, plaintiff alleges thаt the truck driver backed the semi-truck in a manner that was unsafe and that interfered with other traffic in violation of the Illinois Vehicle Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 951/2, par. 11 — 1402(a)). Further, plaintiff alleged that the location and narrow width of F&S’ driveway and F&S’ placement of materials in its loading dock both impeded and lengthenеd the driver’s attempts to back into F&S’ loading dock, thereby resulting in the truck driver’s obstruction of traffic. Construing such allegations most strongly in favor of plaintiff, the driver’s alleged violation of his statutory duty not to obstruct traffic was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the configuratiоn of F&S’ driveway and the materials there placed.
However, our inquiry is not ended because we must still weigh the foreseeability that a condition of F&S’ property would result in plaintiff’s decedent’s injury against the additional factors of the likelihood of such result, as well as the burden and consequence of imposing a duty upon F&S to guard against the intеrvening negligence of a truck driver. A landowner’s duty to those using an adjacent highway arises only by virtue of his status as a landowner and the underlying rationale that a landowner is in the best position to prevent the injury. (Ziemba,
In both this instance and Ziemba, the complained-of injuries were the result of the alleged negligence of an intervening third party in the form of a truck driver. So, too, in this instance, just as in Ziemba, F&S had neither the right nor ability to control the truck driver’s conduct. The truck driver’s ability and experience were traits particular to the individual driver, whiсh affected not only the duration of his efforts to back the semitruck into F&S’ driveway and dock but also his eventual accomplishment or failure of such task. Such individual traits were clearly not within F&S’ control. The truck driver’s decision to stop the truck across the road as alleged by plaintiff, rather than either completely backing into the dock or terminating the delivery, was not within F&S’ control. F&S did not control the decision as to the type or length of the truck to be used to make the delivery, nor the use and/or maintenance of its reflective markings. The trucking company and truck driver, rather than F&S, were in the best position to prevent plaintiff’s decedent’s injury.
Finally, the instant facts confirm the soundness of the policy of not imposing a general duty to guard against the negligence of others. Plaintiff alleged that F&S directed and required deliveries to be made at its driveway and dock and essentially alleged that the mere provision of a driveway creates a duty to insure that it is used in a manner that will not cause injury to others. Almost all commercial facilities receive and/or ship deliveries, and further such deliveries are frequently made by a truck that must be backed into or out of a driveway or dock. Such maneuvers frequently “obstruct” traffic, although in varying degrees and durations. However, such maneuvers are further “a matter of common knowledge” and over which the property owner has little control and for which the property owner should not be liable. See Ziemba,
Thus, although thе truck driver’s alleged intervening negligence was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the condition of F&S’ property, F&S owed no duty to plaintiff’s decedent to guard against such alleged negligence, and, therefore, plaintiff failed as a matter of law to state a cause of action sounding in negligence against F&S.
We affirm the trial court’s dismissal of those counts of plaintiff’s complaint that alleged negligence against F&S.
Affirmed.
REINHARD, P.J., and BOWMAN, J., concur.