Barango v. E. L. Hedstrom Coal Co.

138 N.E.2d 829, 12 Ill. App. 2d 118
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 8, 1957
DocketGen. 46,815
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 138 N.E.2d 829 (Barango v. E. L. Hedstrom Coal Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barango v. E. L. Hedstrom Coal Co., 138 N.E.2d 829, 12 Ill. App. 2d 118 (Ill. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

JUDGE McCORMICK

delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was brought by the plaintiff, John Barango, to recover damages for injuries sustained by him allegedly resulting from the joint and several negligence of E. L. Hedstrom Coal Co. (hereafter referred to as “Hedstrom”) and Elizabeth L. Fitch, administrator of the estate of Yernon A. Fitch, deceased, d/b/a Y. A. Fitch Motor Service (hereafter referred to as “Fitch”). The case was tried before a jury, a verdict was returned in favor of the plaintiff for $75,000 against both defendants, and judgment was entered upon the verdict. The trial court sustained the motion of defendant Hedstrom for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and entered judgment accordingly in favor of that defendant. At the same time the court denied both Hedstrom’s and Fitch’s motions for a new trial. From the judgment entered for the plaintiff against the defendant Fitch for $75,000, the latter takes this appeal. A separate appeal was also taken by the plaintiff from the order of the court sustaining defendant Hedstrom’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and from the judgment in favor of Hedstrom entered by the trial court.

The case grew out of an accident occurring on November 30, 1949. The plaintiff Barango, a self-employed cab driver, stopped his cab on the north side of Lawrence Avenue, in Chicago, facing west, just ahead of the cab of one Seiff. He went back to Seiff’s cab to talk to him, and while he was standing at the left door of Seiff’s cab (the door towards the street), he was struck by a coal conveyor apparatus belonging to Hedstrom, which had broken away from a six-wheel coal dump truck going west on Lawrence Avenue to which it had been attached. The truck was owned by Fitch and at the time was being driven by an employee of Fitch who had been in her service for about three weeks and who had previously worked for Hedstrom as a driver. With the driver in the truck was a coal hiker employed by Hedstrom.

Hedstrom in 1949 owned its own trucks but occasionally when extra trucks were needed hired them from Fitch. The practice was that Fitch’s drivers would report in the morning to pick up a truck. Fitch usually the night before notified the driver as to what truck he was to take, where he was going, and whether he would be hauling coal, dirt, crushed stone, or something else. When the driver went to Hedstrom’s he would get a slip from someone there, which would designate how much coal was to be delivered, the address of the customer, and whether the coal was to be carried by conveyor or otherwise. The driver would not know any of these facts until he arrived at Hedstrom’s. The driver of the truck involved had driven coal trucks for two or three years and was familiar with the way hitches connecting a conveyor to the truck would operate. He had been sent to Hedstrom’s on prior occasions but had not previous to the day in question hauled a conveyor with a Fitch truck, although he had with other trucks he had driven.

The driver on the morning in question, under Fitch’s instructions, took a Fitch truck to Hedstrom’s. The driver did not know that a conveyor was to be used that day until after he had arrived at Hedstrom’s. The conveyor apparatus is a device about 10 feet long, about five feet high, weighing about 500 to 600 pounds. It is narrower than the conventional coal truck. It is mounted on two wheels and when disconnected the front rests upon the ground. The conveyor, used for unloading coal, consists of a trough, open at one end and with a closed small hopper at the other. During the unloading of the coal from the wagon, the coal falls into the hopper and is carried through the trough upon an endless rotating belt with slots, and the coal is thus conveyed to the basement or wherever it is desired to be placed. Above the wheels and standing high above the trough of the conveyor is a gasoline motor designed to operate the conveyor when unloading coal. There is a tongue on the front of the conveyor stabilized by two springs, one vertical and one horizontal, and at the tip of the tongue is a hole adapted for attachment to a hook, which is part of the hitching apparatus located at the rear of the truck, in the center. In attaching the conveyor to the truck the hole in the end of the tongue of the conveyor is inserted into the lower hook of the hitch. The top hook of the hitch is then pulled down and the hitch is closed. Above the top hook of the hitch there is a lever, or “dog,” which, after the hitch is closed, is pushed down in order to lock it. Attached to the sides of the front of the conveyor are safety chains which, when the conveyor is properly connected to a truck, are firmly attached to the truck by means of hooks placed on each side of the truck for that purpose, and trucks designed to haul conveyors are so equipped. All the trucks that were heretofore so used by the driver of the instant truck had had such hooks. The Fitch truck used on the day in question had no such hooks, but did have a chain, known as a “wheelbarrow chain,” across the entire back of the truck. This chain would be used to hold a wheelbarrow if a wheelbarrow was to be taken along for the purpose of unloading the coal. The conveyor in question was not easily attached to the truck, inasmuch as the driver had to force down the lock, or dog, on the truck hitch by hitting it. The customary and usual way to close the hitch is simply to pull it into position. The lock on the instant truck had never come open before, but the driver had complained to the manager at Fitch’s concerning the hitch on the truck.

At the time the driver connected the truck to the conveyor, one “Red,” the yard superintendent employed by Hedstrom and in immediate charge of the yard, was present. He gave the driver instructions to the effect that the coal was to be unloaded by a conveyor, and he told the driver how to fasten this particular conveyor to the truck. The safety chains were not attached to the truck but were wrapped around the tongue of the conveyor.

The defendant Hedstrom, in support of its position that the trial court ruled properly in entering judgment in its favor notwithstanding the verdict, urges that there was no evidence of independent negligence on its part. The plaintiff in his amended statement of claim alleges that the acts of negligence of Pitch and Hedstrom relied on were joint and several, and the case was tried on that theory.

In the instant case we have a unique situation. Ordinarily, if a person engaged the owner of a truck to do hauling for him, the owner alone would be responsible for the safe condition of the truck and no liability could attach to the person hiring the truck for any defects which might have caused injury to a third person. Here, however, before the truck went on the errand for which it was engaged, an additional step was taken which involved the joint action of both defendants. Hedstrom had the right to determine the method of delivery of the coal, and if the delivery was to be by means of a conveyor, Hedstrom furnished the conveyor which had to be attached to the truck and taken to the place of delivery. Pitch knew or should have known these facts. The Fitch truck was equipped with a hitch to which a conveyor could be attached. Fitch either knew or should have known of the necessity of safety chains. The truck which was sent to Hedstrom was not adapted for the attachment of such chains.

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Bluebook (online)
138 N.E.2d 829, 12 Ill. App. 2d 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barango-v-e-l-hedstrom-coal-co-illappct-1957.