Brecher v. Chicago Junction Railway Co.

119 Ill. App. 554
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 10, 1905
DocketGen. No. 11,886
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 119 Ill. App. 554 (Brecher v. Chicago Junction Railway 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
Brecher v. Chicago Junction Railway Co., 119 Ill. App. 554 (Ill. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Adams

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a writ of error to reverse a judgment in favor of defendants in error. Plaintiff in error sued defendants in error and the Chicago City Railway in case, for negligently causing the death of plaintiff’s intestate, Robert Gunn, deceased. The jury found the. Chicago City Railway Co. guilty and assessed damages against it, and found each of the defendants in error not guilty. Motions for a new trial by plaintiff in error and by the Chicago City Railway Co. were made and overruled, and judgment was rendered on the verdict, from which judgment the Chicago City Railway Co. appealed to this court, with the result that the judgment against it was reversed and remanded. Chicago City Railway Co. v. Brecher, 112 Ill. App. 106. Subsequently the plaintiff in error sued out the present writ ■of error to reverse the judgment in favor of the defendants in error. The following occurred in the trial court in reference to-the motions of plaintiff in error and the Chicago City Railway Company for a new trial: The attorney for plaintiff in error, addressing the court, said: “I enter a motion, on behalf of the plaintiff, for a new trial, but I do not care to have it granted unless your Honor sees fit to grant the motion of the Chicago City Railway Company. If your Honor feels compelled to grant the motion of the Chicago City Railway Company, I shall also ask to have my motion granted.” Bemarks of counsel on both sides then followed, which are not important to be considered, when plaintiff’s attorney, again addressing the court, said: “Before the judgment is entered, if the court please, I wish my motion overruled.” The court overruled the motion of the Chicago City Railway Company and also the plaintiff’s for a new trial. The motion for a new trial having been overruled by the request of the plaintiff, the ruling cannot be assigned as error. Smith v. Kimball, 128 Ill. 583; First Nat’l Bank v. Ill. Steel Co., 174 ib. 140, 154; Sheridan v. City of Chicago, 175 ib. 421; Essroger v. City of Chicago, 185 ib. 420.

There are numerous other cases to the same effect. Such being the law, we cannot review the evidence, consider its weight, or the rulings of the court in respect to the admission or exclusion of evidence. In so far. as the evidence is concerned, the case is to be regarded as if no motion for a new trial had been made by the plaintiff.

Counsel for Street’s Western Stable Car Line contend that, by reason of the motion for a new trial having been overruled by plaintiff’s request, the judgment cannot be questioned. The judgment may be questioned on exceptions to rulings on instructions and errors assigned in regard thereto, and a motion for a new trial in such case is unnecessary.

In Ill. Cent. R. R. Co. v. O’Keefe, 154 Ill. 508, 512, the court say: “While it is necessary that a motion for new trial should be incorporated in the bill of exceptions where it is desired to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings, it is also necessary in such case that the whole evidence shall be therein incorporated, and it must be so stated.' But where the propriety of giving or refusing instructions is sought to be presented, neither a motion for new trial nor all the evidence in the case is required to he inserted. At common law the correctness of the charge of the judge was always subject to review where it was properly incorporated in the bill of exceptions, as here, and such is the rule declared by the decisions of this state, regardless of the fact that a motion for new trial is not in the bill of exceptions.”

It is sufficient for it to appear in the bill of exceptions that the evidence tended to prove the issues, in order to raise questions as to the correctness of instructions. Ib. 513; Johnson v. Johnson, 187 Ill. 86, 92; Brown v. Schintz, 202 ib. 509. In this case it appears that all the evidence is contained in the bill of exceptions, and it will be referred to solely for the purpose of passing on instructions.

The declaration consists of three counts', and charges, generally, that the defendants permitted the intersections or crossings of their tracks, respectively, to be and remain unsafe and out of repair. Each defendant pleaded the general issue. A plat of the railroads and their crossings, in evidence, shows that the Chicago City Railway Company has a double track railway in 47th street, which street lies east and west in the city of Chicago; that a switch track of the Chicago Junction Railway Company crosses both tracks of the Chicago City Railway Co. in a northwesterly and southeasterly direction; that Street’s Stable Car Line switch track lies northeasterly and southwesterly, and crosses the track of the Chicago Junction Railway Co, northwesterly from the crossing of the Chicago Junction Railway and the north track of the Chicago City Railway Co., and that the distance along the south rail of the Chicago Junction Railway, between the point where it crosses Street’s eastern rail and the City Railway’s north rail, is nearly fourteen feet. The evidence tends to prove that the accident, by which plaintiff’s intestate lost his life, occurred about 11:15 o’clock in the night of September 29, 1900; that he was at the time in the employ of the Monon Co. as a switchman, which company used the switch track of the Chicago Junction Co.; that, at the time of the accident, the -deceased was on the front foot-hoard of an engine of a Monon train, which was hauling eight or ten cars southeasterly on the Chicago Junction track, and that he was rightfully there; that the last seen of him was a little east -of Centre avenue, when he was on the front foot-hoard of the engine; that no one saw the accident, hut that, after .the train passed 47th street, it was observed by one of the -.crew of the train that a switch which the train was approaching was set in a wrong direction, when the train was stopped about 100 feet south of the crossing, and it was -then discovered that plaintiff’s intestate was not in his place on the foot-board, and the foot-board was broken and bent back; that the upper part of the body of the deceased was found lying about a foot south of the south rail of the Chicago Junction Company’s track and a little north of the south curb line of the street; and the lower part of his body was found between the rails of the Chicago City Railway Company’s south track and also between the rails of ¡the Chicago Junction Company’s track, in Other words, in the space bounded by the rails of the tracks of the said- two companies; that the hat of the deceased was found in the space bounded by the Chicago Junction Company’s track .and the rails of the Chicago City Railway Company’s north track, and his lantern was found between the rails of the Chicago Junction Company’s track and 'in the space between the north and south tracks of the Chicago City Railway Co. There is evidence tending to prove that by some .agreement or arrangement between defendants in error, it was the duty of the Chicago Junction Railway Co. to keep in repair the crossing of the tracks of defendants in error. There is also evidence, proper to be submitted to a jury, which tends to prove that defendants in error were negligent as averred in the declaration.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 Ill. App. 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brecher-v-chicago-junction-railway-co-illappct-1905.