A Chicago man who warned the city about an unsafe tree will receive a $3.5 million settlement after it collapsed on him and caused a traumatic brain injury.
Nicholas Pellegrino was checking his car battery on Dec. 21, 2020, when the tree fell on him near his home in the 700 block of West Hutchinson Street in Uptown.
The tree had been the subject of multiple complaints to the city's 311 nonemergency line, yet no action was taken. Pellegrino, then 28, spent nearly two months in the hospital, including time in a medically induced coma, according to his attorney, Colin Dunn.
"This one fell through the cracks," Dunn told the Chicago Sun-Times. "When they get 311 calls about tree issues, they need to send out certified arborists that can look at it and decide if the tree is safe or not—especially...where it's a residential street with high traffic."
While the price to cut down a tree in Chicago ranges from $300 to $1,500, the city, aware of the hazardous tree, wound up facing a staggering $3.5 million payout.
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