Lewis v. American Airlines, Inc. ( 1997 )

1-95-4214 MARCUS LEWIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellant, ) Cook County. ) v. ) ) AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., ) Honorable ) Arthur A. Sullivan, Jr., Defendant-Appellee. ) Judge Presiding. PRESIDING JUSTICE HARTMAN delivered the opinion of the court: Plaintiff Marcus Lewis appeals from the circuit court's orders granting summary judgment to defendant American Airlines, Inc., (American) and denying his motions for leave to: (1) conduct additional discovery prior to summary judgment, (2) file a fourth amended complaint, and (3) file a jury demand. For the reasons which follow, we affirm. The factual context of this dispute appears in the pleadings or discovery documents. Plaintiff, hired by American as a ramp service clerk in 1984, soon noticed that the doors on American's tractors did not protect drivers from the elements. Plaintiff told his group supervisor, Dick Walters, about his idea to invent a plastic or canvas door that "fanned" like a shower curtain to cover the aperture in bad weather. Walters told plaintiff to submit his idea to American through its Employee Suggestion Program, an arrangement with which plaintiff allegedly had been familiar si