Chicago & E. I. R. R. v. Jennings

89 Ill. App. 335, 1899 Ill. App. LEXIS 668
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 21, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 89 Ill. App. 335 (Chicago & E. I. R. R. v. Jennings) 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
Chicago & E. I. R. R. v. Jennings, 89 Ill. App. 335, 1899 Ill. App. LEXIS 668 (Ill. Ct. App. 1900).

Opinions

Mr. J ustice W indes

delivered the opinion of the court.

On behalf of appellant it is claimed that there was error, first, in not directing a verdict for appellant; second, in the admission of evidence; and, third, in the refusal of instructions asked by appellant, and also in the modification of certain instructions requested by it.

Under the first point, it is argued that Jennings failed to use the slightest care and caution for his own safety. We think the matter of Jennings’ care was a question for the jury, and under the evidence, which is somewhat conflicting, reasonable and fair-minded persons might, acting reasonably, have reached different conclusions; and this being so, the case was properly submitted to the consideration of the jury. R. R. Co. v. Kelly, 80 Ill. App. 675, affirmed, 182 Ill. 267, and cases there cited; Offut v. Col. Exp. Co., 175 Ill. 472; Pa. Co. v. McCaffrey, 173 Ill. 169.

The evidence shows that Jennings at the time of his death was sixty-five years of age, and had been in the habit of taking appellant’s suburban trains at its Seventy-sixth street station almost daily for a period of nearly five years at or about 7:37 a. m., to go to his work, which was that of a glass bender at Eiftv-ninth street and Union avenue, nearer the heart of the city than Seventy-sixth street. In his pocketbook, in the pocket of a suit which he was wearing at the time of the accident, there was found a commutation ten ride ticket from Auburn Junction to Fifty-ninth street, with one ride unused. This ticket was the one ordinarily used on appellant’s railway between Seventy-sixth and Fifty-ninth streets.

At Seventy-sixth street appellant’s depot is upon the east side of its tracks, which consist of four main tracks, a spur and two cut-offs, the two easterly tracks being used for passenger trains, the most easterly being for north-bound trains and known as track Flo. 1, the next to the west being for south-bound trains and known as FTo. 2, and the two tracks still to the west being for freight trains. Directly east of track FTo. 1, extending from that track to the depot on the east, is a platform made of two-inch planks on a level with .the top of the rails extending north from the sidewalk crossing about 100 feet, at the north end being about ten feet wide and at the south end being about seventeen or eighteen feet wide. To the west of the north-bound track on the same level and extending from the northbound to the south-bound track, from Seventy-sixth street sidewalk, about 100 feet north, is a similar platform. Substantially the whole crossing of Seventy-sixth street is covered by similar planking, on the same level with the platforms, extending across all of appellant’s tracks and reaching to the north sidewalk of the crossing, and making a continuous platform of planking between tracks Nos. 1 and 2, from a point about 100 feet north of Seventy-sixth street to the south line of said street, and a similar continuous platform and planking on the same level east of and immediately contiguous to track No. 1, from a point 100 feet north of Seventy-sixth street to the south line of the street, with the exception of a narrow space between the south sidewalk and the planking of the street crossing proper between the rails of track No. 1, and also to the east of the east rail of track No. 1. The north sidewalk of Seventy-sixth street joins the east rail of track No. 2, and there is a small space between this sidewalk and the planking of the street crossing extending from the east rail of track No. 2 toward the west. All this planking between tracks Nos. 1 and 2, including the sidewalks on both sides of Seventy-sixth street, was commonly used by persons in the habit of taking or leaving appellant’s suburban trains at this point, and Jennings, during all the time he had taken these trains at this station, was in the habit of approaching this platform between the tracks Nos. 1 and 2 from the west on the north sidewalk of Seventy-sixth street, his home being at a point north westerly from the intersection of Seventy-sixth street and appellant’s railroad tracks. He usually and ordinarily took appellant’s north-bound suburban train leaving the Seventy-sixth street station at 7:37 a. m., and at the time he was killed was on his way to take this train, going along the north sidewalk, and was struck by appellant’s south-bound train, either as he stood very near the west rail of the south-bound track, or just as he was in the act of stepping across this track on the sidewalk connecting with the platform beyond it to the east.

The north-bound train was about on time, but the southbound train, which struck Jennings, as we think a preponderance of the evidence clearly establishes, was several minutes behind time. These trains usually and ordinarily passed each other when on time at or about Eighty-first street, which is five blocks to the south of Seventy-sixth street, and several of the witnesses testify that they never knew, although they were familiar with the running of the trains at this point, of this south-bound train passing Seventy-sixth street at the time the north-bound train was stopping there or about to stop there. The north-bound train was scheduled to stop at this station at or about the time that it did actually stop on the morning of the accident, but the south-bound train was not scheduled to stop at this station. Appellant’s engineer was an experienced man, had for some time been running this particular southbound train, and must be presumed to have been familiar with the fact that the north-bound train was scheduled to-stop at this station for the receipt and discharge of passengers, and in any event the evidence shows that he saw the-north-bound train as he approached the station from the-north, and could easily-have seen, if he did not see, that the-north-bound train was either stopped at the station or was-in the act of stopping. He testified that this north-bound, train was not a stranger to him, and he had seen it leaving-there as his train would be coming up sometimes; that he-knew perfectly well that this was not the place he commonly passed it; that it stopped at this station for passengers at about 7:37 a. m., as far as he recollected.

There were also offered in evidence two rules of the appellant company which were in force at the time, as follows:

“ Buie 114. Great care must be exercised by train men of a train approaching a station where any train is receiving or discharging passengers.”
“ Eule 114a. On double track opposing trains must not pass while passengers are being received or discharged.”

The engineer of the south-bound train was no doubt familiar with these rules, though he testifies that he did not remember of being told by one Eriedlander that there was .a rule prohibiting him from passing a train at a station. He should have been familiar with them. While it does not ■appear that Jennings "was in fact familiar with these rules, from the fact that for five years preceding he had been in the habit of riding upon appellant’s suburban trains almost daily, it is reasonable to presume that he knew of such a rule, and if he did, he had the right to rely upon its observance by appellant’s servants.

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

Related

Raczelowski v. N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R.
94 A. 687 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1915)
Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railway Co. v. Jennings
138 Ill. App. 415 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1908)
Holzenkamp v. Cincinnati Traction Co.
1 Hosea's Rep. 150 (Ohio Superior Court, Cincinnati, 1907)
Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co. v. Weeks
99 Ill. App. 518 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1902)
Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Downey
96 Ill. App. 398 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1901)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 Ill. App. 335, 1899 Ill. App. LEXIS 668, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-e-i-r-r-v-jennings-illappct-1900.