Widow Of Joliet Firefighter Shawn Carroll Sues City

JOLIET, IL — The widow of inspirational Joliet firefighter-paramedic Shawn Carroll has filed a new lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse against her late husband's employer, the city of Joliet. Shawn Carroll died two summers ago after a protracted battle with cancer.

The new lawsuit brought forward by Kristina Carroll alleges that the city of Joliet violated the Public Employee Disability Act by making Shawn Carroll use up his sick leave bank during the year before he died at age 38.

According to the lawsuit, Shawn Carroll contracted myxoid liposacroma, a form of cancer that eventually ended his life on July 29, 2017.

"During the course of his employment, Shawn Carroll worked a regular work schedule in which he would live at one of the Joliet fire stations in order to be available on a sudden emergency basis to perform unusual tasks under stress, while exposed to toxic fumes and in the face of danger," states his widow's lawyer, Thomas Mazur, of the Law Offices of Thomas W. Duda in Palatine.

"In the performance of these unusual strenuous tasks he would be exposed to heavy smoke fumes, poisonous and toxic chemical gases from fires and carcinogenic substances ... Shawn Carroll's cancer (was) due to the cumulative acts of duty he performed (that) rendered him unable to work beginning the day of his diagnosis, October 14, 2016 until his death on July 29, 2017," the lawyer for Kristina Carroll argues.

But why is the city of Joliet being sued?

The Law Offices of Thomas Duda maintain that the Illinois Public Employee Disability Act, also known as PEDA, includes language declaring that "whenever an eligible employee suffers any injury in the line of duty which causes him to be unable to perform his duties, he shall continue to be paid by the employing public entity on the same basis as he was paid before the injury, with no deduction from his sick leave credits."

In the case of Shawn Carroll, "contrary to the Act, the city of Joliet utilized Shawn Carroll's accrued benefit of sick leave. From the period beginning with his diagnosis on October 14, 2016 and until his death on July 29, 2017, the Joliet Fire Department charged Shawn Carroll hours of sick time and additional accrued benefits during his extended absence from his inability to work," the lawsuit contends. "In addition to using his accrued benefits during his extended absence from work, other firefighters volunteered to fill in for Mr. Carroll's absence so that he would continue to be paid."

The suit claims that "Joliet has failed to pay PEDA benefits despite the medical evidence supporting the inability of Shawn Carroll to perform his duties from October 14, 2016 until his death (as) the result of the cumulative effects of his exposure to carcinogens from his service to the community as a firefighter."

The lawsuit contends that "the city must pay plaintiff Kristina Carroll the 52 weeks of compensation pursuant to PEDA in the amount of $104,859 and pre-judgment interest at a rate of 6 percent per annum."

The city of Joliet has yet to file its response to the new lawsuit. A hearing on the court case was set for Sept. 17.