Chicago Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Campbell

116 Ill. App. 322, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 73
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 10, 1904
DocketGen. No. 11,521
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 116 Ill. App. 322 (Chicago Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Campbell) 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 Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Campbell, 116 Ill. App. 322, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 73 (Ill. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Windes

delivered the opinion of the court.

For appellant it is claimed that the court erred in refusing to instruct a verdict of not guilty, in submitting to the jury said special interrogatories, and in refusing to give three instructions, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, requested by appellant, and that the verdict and answers to said questions three and four are clearly and manifestly against the evidence. We will consider the second and fourth of appellant’s claims together.

Appellant cannot, in this court, maintain the first claim for two reasons, viz.: First. It fails to appear that at the ■close of all the evidence appellant submitted to the court a written instruction to find a verdict of not guilty. Montanya v. Emerich O. Co., 172 Ill. 92-7. Second. After its motion made at the close of the evidence to take the case from the jury, it thereafter, by an instruction asked by it and given by the court, submitted to the jury for its determination as questions of fact all the issues made by the pleadings. Consol. Coal Co. v. Haenni, 146 Ill. 614-626; Chicago T. R. R. Co. v. Schmelling, 197 Ill. 619-625; I. C. R. R. Co. v. Keegan, 112 Ill. App. 28-39; Omaha Packing Co. v. Murray, 112 Ill. App. 234-37.

We think there is no reversible error in the court’s rulings in refusing to give the instructions referred to. The second instruction was properly refused, in that it singles out a specific fact shown by the evidence, viz., that the name and business of appellant appeared on a board on the wagon which it is claimed caused the injuries, in question, and told the jury that this circumstance would not prove that the wagon belonged to appellant, or that Mohr, the driver, was appellant’s servant. This was a clear invasion of the province of the jury, since this circumstance, as we think, tended to show both the matters which the instruction told the jurxr it did not prove. The third instruction merely states an abstract proposition of laxv, and no application of it is made to the case, and therefore under the well-settled law it was not error to refuse it. The fourth instruction was, we think, calculated to mislead the jury, because there is evidence in the record, and not denied by appellant’s testimony, tending to show that the driver of the wagon in question was in the em ploy of the appellant and under its direction as to the details of his actions, namely, as to the manner in which the wagons were to be loaded, and for this reason we think it was not error to refuse the instruction, which limits the jury to evidence as td the power of appellant to direct what brick the driver should haul and where he should deliver it.

As to the special interrogatories, it is not claimed, and the record fails to show, that they were submitted to the jury by the court of its own motion, without first submitting them to counsel. The third interrogatory relates to an ultimate fact in the case, as does also the fourth, when the whole evidence is considered. It was not, jn our opinion, error to submit these questions to the jury, since there was evidence to justify them and they relate to ultimate facts.

The controlling question arises upon appellant’s contention that the general verdict of the jury and its answers to said third and fourth interrogatories are clearly and manifestly against the weight of the evidence.

It appears from the evidence that at the time of the injury to appellee, and for a number of years prior thereto, appellant was engaged in the business of manufacturing and dealing in brick and other products made from clay and other materials, and as.a part of this business it caused brick and other materials which it had sold to be transported in wagons from its yards in the city of Chicago to its different customers throughout said city. Horace M. Kimbell and W. H. Dymond, partners under the name of Kimbell & Dymond, were during the same time engaged in the business of teaming for others, and were also in the stone business on their own account. At the time of the accident, and for several years prior thereto, Kimbell & Dymond had an oral contract with appellant to do its teaming at its west yards, at which the wagon causing the injury to appellee was loaded. Under this contract appellant paid Kimbell & Dymond a certain price per load of brick and according to the distance it was hauled. The wagons and horses were kept at appellant’s yards in sheds belonging to it, but they were maintained by Kimbell & Dymond, and in charge of their employees. One Hurl-stone, at the time in question and for some time prior thereto, was shipping clerk and yard-man for appellant at this yard, and as such had charge of the running of the yard. If Kimbell & Dymond desired to use their horses and wagons in their own stone business, they communicated with Hurlstone to find out whether he could spare any of their teams, as, under the contract with appellant, it was to have the preference in use of the teams to do its hauling before Kimbell & Dymond could use them for others or in their stone business. The drivers of the teams were employed and paid by Kimbell & Dymond with their money, but sometimes the money xvas handed to the men by Hurlstone, and the money in some instances was furnished by the appellant, but we think the clear weight of the evidence shows that this was done as a matter of accommodation for Kimbell & Dymond. Kimbell_& Dymond had no one specially in charge of their teamsters whose business it was to direct them, but they were instructed to report to Hurlstone, who directed the teamsters when and where to do the hauling, though it does not appear that he gave them any other directions than what they should’ haul, where the load was to be taken, how the brick was to be loaded, and that they should be careful in handling the brick. There is evidence tending to show that the teamsters were under the directions of Hurlstone, and that he in one instance discharged one of the teamsters; but, after a careful- reading and consideration of the evidence, we think it is established by its clear preponderance that Hurlstone had no power to hire or discharge the teamsters, and that he had no control over their actions further than to direct them when to haul brick, how they should load it and where it should be delivered. He did not direct the teamsters as to the way they should go, nor in any way as to how they should drive the teams, nor is there any evidence that he had any power over the teamsters beyond that referred to. Such being, in our opinion, the clear weight of the evidence, it follows that the verdict and judgment should be set aside and a new trial awarded.

It is not claimed but that the driver of the team in question was negligent, and that his negligence caused the injury to appellee while the latter was in the exercise of ordinary care for his own safety, but the matter of contention is as to whether the driver was the servant of appellant or of Kimbell & Dymond. If he was appellant's servant, then it is liable for his acts; but. if he was Kimbell & Dymond’s servant, then appellant is not liable, unless the servant was temporarily loaned to it for the special service for which he was engaged. Jefferson v. Jameson & Morse Co., 165 Ill. 138-41; Foster v. Wadsworth, 168 Ill. 514-18; Bayer v. R. R. Co., 68 Ill. App. 219-23; Crudup v. Schreiner, 98 Ill. App. 337-40; Consol. Fire Wks. Co. v. Koehl, 190 Ill. 145-9; Pioneer Con. Co. v. Hansen, 176 Ill. 100-8; Hale v. Johnson, 80 Ill. 185-6; Foster v. City of Chicago, 197 Ill. 264-8.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
116 Ill. App. 322, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-hydraulic-press-brick-co-v-campbell-illappct-1904.