Blumb v. Getz

13 N.E.2d 1019, 294 Ill. App. 432, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 604
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 17, 1938
DocketGen. No. 8,987
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 13 N.E.2d 1019 (Blumb v. Getz) 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
Blumb v. Getz, 13 N.E.2d 1019, 294 Ill. App. 432, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 604 (Ill. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Riess

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff appellee, Josephine M. Blumb, administratrix of the estate of Frank W. Blumb, deceased, filed suit against the defendant appellant, Ben Getz, and recovered judgment in the circuit court of Tazewell county in the sum of $3,000 for the benefit of the next of kin of plaintiff’s intestate, from which an appeal was taken to the April term, A. D., 1936 of this court. The judgment was reversed upon the ground that there was no evidence tending to prove due care on the part of appellee’s intestate and that a motion for a directed verdict in favor of the defendant should have been given by the trial court at the close of all the evidence. No further assignments of error were considered at that time by the Appellate Court. (Blumb v. Getz, 286 Ill. App. 623.) The record was further reviewed upon appeal to the Supreme Court, wherein it was held that there was nothing in the evidence which would have justified the trial court in finding, as a matter of law, that the plaintiff’s intestate was not in the exercise of due care or was guilty of contributory negligence at or just prior to the time of the accident. The judgment was there reversed and the cause remanded to the Appellate Court with directions to consider the assignment of errors other than the above, if any appear, and thereupon affirm the judgment of the trial court or to reverse and remand the cause for a new trial. (Blumb v. Getz, 366 Ill. 273.)

The complaint consisted of two counts, in the first of which it was charged that Ben Getz was operating and managing a motor vehicle in his own behalf and as agent and servant of Boss C. Adams, on State highway No. 9, between the cities of Pekin and Morton in Tazewell county; that plaintiff’s intestate, Prank W. Blumb, was walking along said highway in a westerly direction and was in the exercise of due care and caution for his own safety; that the defendant Ben Getz carelessly, wrongfully and negligently suffered and permitted said automobile to run against intestate and knock him down upon the highway, causing- fatal injuries, from which he died on December 2, 1933.

The second count alleges that plaintiff’s intestate was walking on said public highway with due care and caution for his own safety and stopped to pick up his glove, which he had dropped on said highway, when Ben Getz, in his own behalf and as the agent of the defendant Boss C. Adams; then and there approached plaintiff’s intestate and negligently, carelessly and unlawfully failed to give reasonable warning or stop his automobile before striking said intestate and failed to use every reasonable precaution to avoid injuring him, but approached so rapidly that he was'unable to remove himself from the path of the automobile driven by defendant Ben Getz, contrary to sec. 40 of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Act, Cahill’s Ill. St. 1933, ch. 95a, If 41; that as a result of said negligence plaintiff’s intestate was struck and fatally injured.

The defendants Ben Getz and Boss C. Adams answered and denied each and all of the allegations of the complaint, and alleged that the death of intestate was due to his own carelessness and negligence. At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s case, upon her motion, Boss C. Adams was dismissed as a party defendant, leaving Ben Getz as the sole party defendant.

It appears from the testimony that the accident which resulted in the death of plaintiff’s intestate took place on State highway No. 9, a hard-surfaced road extending in an easterly and westerly direction between the cities of Pekin and Morton, Illinois, of 18 feet in width, with dirt shoulders 6 feet in width on each side thereof.

The road ran in an almost straight line so that a person driving an automobile could see anything ahead and so, aléo, could a pedestrian on the road observe the approach of an automobile. The home of John W. Nord, a brother-in-law of Frank W. Blumb, the deceased, was located on the north side of route 9. On the day of the accident Blumb and Nord left the latter’s house to go hunting. They proceeded in an easterly direction upon said highway and on the north side of the pavement. The sun was shining brightly, the atmosphere was clear and the pavement was dry. Nord and Blumb stopped temporarily while the latter was putting shells in his belt. He took out of his pocket a package of cigarettes, lighted one, and they then continued along the highway. Blumb discovered, after they had proceeded about 200 feet, that he had dropped one of his gloves at the place where he had lighted his. cigarette. He turned and retraced his steps in order to recover it. From Nord’s testimony it appears that when the deceased started back, he was walking on the shoulder of the highway adjacent to and north of the hard surface reserved for automobiles. Nord proceeded along the highway and the automobile, driven by Getz, passed him going in a westerly direction at a speed, according to Nord, of 50 miles per hour. The witness testified that he walked on about 40 feet farther after the car passed him; that he turned around and saw the car swaying to the right and left across the black fine in the center of the road, and that he then saw a dark object lying about the middle of the road which he found, upon returning, to be the body of the deceased. When Nord turned around he was approximately 450 feet east of the body.

■ Raymond Strubhar, a witness called on behalf of the plaintiff, testified that he was about 200 feet from the highway where the accident happened, when he saw Blumb, the deceased, take two or three steps southwesterly across the highway and then saw him bend over; that at the time the deceased was bending over he was about two feet north of the black line and that at that time, the automobile was a distance of 20 or 25 feet away. Both of these witnesses testified that they heard no horn or warning signal prior to the accident and that the automobile was traveling at a speed of 50 miles per hour. Strubhar further testified that after the car struck the deceased it “slid” his body about 12 feet and then proceeded about 100 feet further before it stopped; that just prior to the time it struck the deceased it was swerving across the road toward the south. .

It can be gathered from the testimony that there was very little traffic upon this highway at the time of the accident and that the car driven by the defendant was the only one that was actually proceeding over and along this highway, although an automobile driven by one Williams was proceeding in an easterly direction but was, at the time, west of the intersection of State routes 9 and 24. It is evident that this driver came up after the accident had happened.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Osborne v. Redell
159 N.E.2d 841 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1959)
Gaiennie v. Fringer
126 N.E.2d 38 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1955)
Pink v. Dempsey
113 N.E.2d 334 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1953)
Hann v. Brooks
73 N.E.2d 624 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1947)
Kubin v. Chicago Title & Trust Co.
29 N.E.2d 859 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 N.E.2d 1019, 294 Ill. App. 432, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blumb-v-getz-illappct-1938.