Chicago City Railway Co. v. Taylor

170 Ill. 49
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 170 Ill. 49 (Chicago City Railway Co. v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago City Railway Co. v. Taylor, 170 Ill. 49 (Ill. 1897).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Craig

delivered the opinion of the court:

In appellant’s argument filed in this court it is first contended that the evidence utterly failed to establish appellee’s case, and it was therefore error to refuse appellant’s seventeenth instruction, which was as follows:

“The jury are instructed that the evidence in this case would not justify a verdict for the plaintiff, and your verdict must be for the defendant.”

The defendant did not,upon the close of plaintiff’s evidence nor at the close of all the evidence, move to have the case taken from the jury, nor did it ask to have the jury peremptorily instructed to return a verdict for it, but, on the other hand, the defendant requested the court to give, and the court did give, sixteen instructions, which assumed that the questions of fact necessary to make out a case in favor of plaintiff were properly before the jury. Where instructions have been given at the request of a party which assume the existence of facts necessary to make out a case in favor of the opposite party, it is not error for the court to refuse an instruction like the one here involved. A similar question arose in Peirce v. Walters, 164 Ill. 560, and it was there said (p. 565): “In other words, defendants submitted the case to the jury for their determination upon the facts, thereby conceding that there was a question for their decision. The refusal of the instruction, when asked upon the final submission of the case, was proper, because it sought to take away from the jury all questions of fact, and require them to determine, as a matter of law, that there was no evidence before them tending to support the plaintiff’s cause of action. If the defendants desired the court to pass upon the legal question as to whether or not there was any testimony before the jury tending to prove the plaintiff’s case, and to bring that question before this court for review as a question of law, they should have asked to have the case withdrawn from the jury before the final submission.”

But even if the question attempted, to be raised had been properly presented by appellant the ground urged for a reversal of the judgment could not be sustained. If no evidence whatever had been introduced tending to prove that plaintiff was in the exercise of ordinary care, or if there was no evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant, it might, and doubtless would, have been the duty of the court, on application, to direct the jury to find for the defendant. But such was not the case. We shall not stop here to review the evidence. It is sufficient, however, to say there was evidence tending" to prove ordinary care on behalf of plaintiff and evidence tending to prove negligence on the part of the defendant, and such being the case, it was the duty of the court to leave it to the jury to determine the weight of the evidence and return a verdict accordingly. That has been done, and the plaintiff recovered a judgment in the circuit court. Whether that judgment was supported by the evidence was a question which the appellant might properly contest in the Appellate Court, but when appellant was defeated there and the judgment was affirmed in the Appellate Court, a.ll controversy over the facts was ended, the judgment of that court being founded on the facts.

Appellant has filed here a long brief and argument, in which the facts involved in the case have been elaborately discussed; but we shall not follow appellant in the discussion, as that question is not here for our determination.

It is next contended on behalf of appellant that the trial judge erred in refusing to propound to the jury the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh special interrogatories asked by defendant. They were as follows:

“Second—Could the plaintiff, after entering upon the north-bound track on the occasion in question, have escaped the collision with the grip-car by the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care on his part in the driving of his team and the management of his car?”

The third was like the second, except that the word “avoided” was used instead of the word “escaped,’’before the words “the collision.”

“Fourth—Ought the plaintiff, on the occasion in question, in the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care under the facts and circumstances appearing in evidence, to have allowed the grip-train to pass by before entering upon the north-bound track?

“Fifth—Ought the plaintiff, on the occasion in question, in the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care under the facts and circumstances appearing in evidence, after entering the north-bound track to have hastened his car?

“Sixth—Was the plaintiff guilty of a want of ordinary and reasonable care in entering upon the north-bound track ahead of the cable train, under the facts and circumstances appearing in evidence?

“Seventh—Was the plaintiff guilty of a want of reasonable and ordinary care, on the occasion in question, in not driving faster than he did after entering upon the north-bound track, under the facts and circumstances appearing in evidence?”

While the court refused the foregoing interrogatories the following was given:

“Eighth—Could the plaintiff, Taylor, by the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care and watchfulness on his part, have avoided the collision in question?”

The Appellate Court held that all of the refused interrogatories were embodied in No. 8, which was given, and we are inclined to the opinion that the court was correct.

It is manifest that the real, important and controlling question in the case was whether the plaintiff, in driving the horse car across the track of appellant, exercised ordinary care to avoid the collision which resulted in his injury. If that question was fairly submitted in interrogatory No. 8 there was no necessity for propounding other questions to the jury which might have a near or remote bearing on the question. Had the jury found, in answer to interrogatory No. 8, that Taylor, by the exerelse of reasonable and ordinary care, could have avoided the collision, and so returned in the verdict, that would have been an end of the case. So, also, a finding that Taylor, by the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care, could not have avoided the collision, would seem to be conclusive on the question of plaintiff’s negligence. So far, then, as the question of negligence of the plaintiff or the question of the exercise of ordinary care on his part may be involved, the interrogatory propounded covered all that was involved, and while the other interrogatories may have some remote bearing on the question and might have elicited evidentiary facts, we do not think the court erred in refusing them.

A similar question arose in Chicago and Northwestern Railway Co. v. Dunleavy, 129 Ill. 132. There, as here, the question involved was whether the person injured had exercised ordinary care for his safety. Counsel for the railway company requested the court to submit to the jury the following interrogatory: “What precaution did the deceased take to inform himself of the approach of the train which caused the injury?” The court refused the interrogatory as asked, but modified it to read as follows: “Was the deceased exercising reasonable care for his own safety at the time he was killed?” The ruling of the court on the modification was sustained. It was there said (p.

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170 Ill. 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-city-railway-co-v-taylor-ill-1897.