Chandler v. Illinois Central Railroad

171 Ill. App. 240, 1912 Ill. App. LEXIS 630
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 11, 1912
StatusPublished

This text of 171 Ill. App. 240 (Chandler v. Illinois Central Railroad) 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
Chandler v. Illinois Central Railroad, 171 Ill. App. 240, 1912 Ill. App. LEXIS 630 (Ill. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

Per Curiam :

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered by the Circuit Court of Macon county, in favor of appellee against appellant, for the sum of $2,500.00. The action was in case to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of appellant.

When the trial was entered upon the’ declaration consisted of six counts; at the close of appellee’s evidence in chief, he withdrew the fourth and sixth counts and the case was submitted to the jury at the close of all the evidence, upon the first, second, third and fifth counts. The negligence charged against appellant in each of these counts is substantially the same, and is charged in substantially the same language. Some of the counts set out the environments more in detail than others. The second count as abstracted by counsel for appellant is as follows:

“Second count charges that on the 4th day of May, 1909, the defendant owned and operated certain lines of railroad track from Odin to Centralia, in Marion county, and also owned certain tracks which ran from Salem to Centralia, in Marion county, which last named tracks were, and had been for a number of years, rented, leased or loaned to another railroad corporation known as the Illinois Southern Railroad Company, which said company was upon the day aforesaid in control and using the said leased tracks for their own purposes, and running locomotive engines, cars and trains upon and over said tracks; and that said tracks of the Illinois Southern Railroad Company and the tracks of the defendant joined and united at a junction two miles from Centralia and the tracks of the defendant and the Illinois Southern ran parallel to and with each other upon the same roadbed, said roadbed being elevated above the public highway, to-wit: Twelve feet, for a distance of to-wit: One mile, before the two sets of tracks joined at the aforesaid junction.”
“That there was a certain public road running from Salem to Centraba which highway crossed over the tracks of the defendant, and also the tracks leased to the Illinois Southern Company, and after crossing said tracks ran in a southern direction east of the tracks of the Illinois Southern Railroad and the defendant’s tracks and parallel with and at a distance of to-wit: forty feet from these aforesaid tracks where the tracks ran upon the common road bed as aforesaid; and whereupon upon the day last aforesaid, the defendant company by its agents and servants, the graders or section workers, were working upon or repairing its track and road bed at this said point, and were taking old and useless ties or logs from the said tracks.”
“That on the 4th day of May, 1909, the plaintiff was riding and driving with all due care and caution in a certain carriage drawn by certain horses upon the highway at a point where the public highway ran parallel to the tracks of the defendant and said tracks of the Illinois Southern Railroad Company; whereupon it became and was the duty of the defendant company to use reasonable care in its work not to scare or frighten horses and teams driving upon the public highway; but defendant not regarding its duty, by its agents, the graders or section workers caused a tie or log of wood which had been taken from the repairs then and there being made by defendant upon its road bed to be carried across the tracks of the Illinois Southern Railroad Company and carelessly and negligently thrown down the side of the embankment towards the said public highway upon which the plaintiff was riding, and at and towards his horse, which negligence of the defendant by its said servants, frightened plaintiff’s horses, caused them to run away, and to throw the plaintiff upon the ground and thereby injuring him, his right knee being broken, his right foot smashed and bruised and he has so remained for a long space of time, to-wit: hitherto, and has been prevented from attending to Ms business and laid out large sum in endeavoring to be cured.”

The appellant at the close of all the evidence requested an instruction that the jury return a verdict of not guilty; this the court refused. The evidence shows that appellee was injured about two miles north of Centraba near a place called Branch Junction, on a public highway which runs on the east side of, adjoining and parallel with the right of way of appellant. At Branch Junction, the Illinois Southern Railway branches from the Illinois Central and runs northeasterly crossing the said public highway. The railroad tracks near where the accident happened are on an embankment which according to the witnesses is from twelve to twenty feet high. The distance between the bottom of the railroad embankment and the west lme of the highway, as testified to by witnesses for appellee, is sixty-four feet, and by witnesses for appellant, eighty-two feet. Section men were at work, some two or three hundred feet north of where the Illinois Southern Railroad crosses the highway, removing old ties from the north-bound track of appellant carrying them across the south-bound track and dropping them down the embankment on the side nearest the highway for the purpose of burning them. About two o’clock on the afternoon of the accident, appellee drove a span of horses, hitched to the running gears of a wagon, south along this highway. Appellee sat on the east side of the hounds of the wagon facing southeast. As he drove past where the section men were at work, two of the men carried a tie from the Illinois Central track across the Illinois Southern Railroad track just north of the switch uniting these tracks and rolled or threw it down the embankment toward appellee’s team. There is evidence showing that a dog came running toward the team and barking from a house east of where the accident happened. The horses took fright either at the tie rolling down this embankment dr at the dog and ran away. The appelleewas thrown from the wagon and injured. He did not see the section men and the section men did not see him until the' team started to run away.

It is contended that from the proof it is uncertain whether the horses took fright at the tie rolling down the railroad embankment on the west side of the highway or at the dog barking at them on the east side of them. The proof is that the first sign of fright by the team was by the horse on the side next the railroad lunging to the left toward the center of the highway or away from the railroad. From this evidence the jury might reasonably find that it was the tie that frightened the team as the team would naturally shy away from and not towards the object at which it took fright. Appellant also contends that from the evidence with all the inferences to be reasonably drawn therefrom, that although it had control over the work being done, yet that it did not violate any duty it owed to appellee since the section men were at work on its right of way and the ties rolled down the embankment neither rolled off the right of way, nor near the highway. “It is, however, a general rule of law that a party should so conduct himself, or use or employ his own property, as not to be likely to injure others; or as the doctrine is expressed in a frequently cited case, whenever one person is placed in such a position with regard to another that it is obvious that if the former does not use ordinary care and skill in his own conduct, he will cause danger of injury to the person or property of the latter, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill to avoid such danger.” 21 Am. & Eng. Ency. of L. 470; Heaven v. Pender, 11 Q. B. D. 503.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
171 Ill. App. 240, 1912 Ill. App. LEXIS 630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chandler-v-illinois-central-railroad-illappct-1912.