Chicago Union Traction Co. v. Rosenthal

118 Ill. App. 278, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 211
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 20, 1905
DocketGen. No. 11,783
StatusPublished

This text of 118 Ill. App. 278 (Chicago Union Traction Co. v. Rosenthal) 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 Union Traction Co. v. Rosenthal, 118 Ill. App. 278, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 211 (Ill. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Ball

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action on the case by Isadore Rosenthal against appellant to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been received by him while a passenger on one of defendant’s cars.

The declaration was in two counts. The first count alleged that on September 6, 1899, the defendant was operating a certain line of street railroad on Milwaukee avenue, in the city of Chicago, with trains of cars running thereon; that the plaintiff became a passenger upon 'a certain car operated on said railroad line; and that while the plaintiff, with all reasonable care and caution, was about to alight therefrom, the defendant, through its servants, negligently and carelessly caused the car to be set in motion while the plaintiff was so alighting, whereby the plaintiff was thrown from the car to the ground and injured. The second count alleged that the plaintiff became a passenger upon a certain car operated by the defendant, and that he had with him his daughter, a child four years of age^ that while the plaintiff, with all reasonable care and caution, was attempting to alight from said car with his daughter, the defendant, through its servant or servants, negligently7 and carelessly caused the car to be set in motion, whereby the plaintiff was thrown to the ground and injured. The plea was the general issue.

The evidence tended to prove that appellee, on September 6, 1899, accompanied by his child, aged four years, boarded a Milwaukee avenue cable car, belonging to and operated by appellant, at Robey street; that the car was an open one, with afoot-board on each side; that the child sat in the lap of a woman passenger; that when he reached Wood street, the place where he wished to alight, the car stopped and he stepped to the ground and immediately put his left foot on the foot-board (or put his right foot on the ground and kept his left foot on the foot-board, the evidence on this point being conflicting), and reached up to take his child; that while he was so doing the conductor rang the bell and the car started; that appellee, with the child . in his left arm and with one foot on the foot-board and the other on the ground, hopped along for a short distance beside the moving car and was then thrown down or fell down, thereby receiving the injuries of which he complains.

The jury found appellant guilty and assessed the damages of appellee at the sum of $2,500. The court compelled a remittitur of $1,000 from the verdict, and then entered a judgment for $1,500. From that judgment the present appeal was perfected.

The sole contention of appellant is that we must reverse this case because of a substantial variance between the declaration and the proof; that each count of the declaration alleges the existence of the relation of carrier and passenger between the parties hereto at the time of the accident; and that the proof shows appellee had alighted from the car in safety and had ceased to be a passenger before he sustained the injuries of which he complains. This alleged variance was pointed out in apt time by appellant, at the close of the evidence for appellee. City of Mattoon v. Fallin, 113 Ill. 250; Myers v. Am. S. B. Co., 64 Ill. App. 188. If it exists, it is a fatal variance. The allegation that appellee was a passenger was a material allegation, and as such must have been proved before he could recover. C. & E. I. Ry. Co. v. Jennings, 190 Ill. 488; W. W. Ry. Co. v. Friedman, 146 Ill. 588. The plaintiff must prove his case as he alleges it. Lake St. El. Ry. Co. v. Shaw, 203 Ill. 42; W. C. St. Ry. Co. v. Kautz, 89 Ill. App. 309; Lake St. El. Ry. Co. v. Collins, ante, p. 270.

Appellant, to sustain its contention that appellee was not a passenger at the time he was injured, cites the following cases:

Allerton v. Boston & Maine Ry. Co., 146 Mass. 241. The deceased left the second or third car from the end of the train and walked along the platform and stood at the end of it. When the train she had alighted from pulled out,- she stepped behind the last car and on to the other track and was there killed by a fast train coming from the opposite direction. The court say: “The plaintiff’s intestate had ceased to be a passenger before the accident which caused her death. She had reached her destination, had alighted from the train, had taken a position upon the sidewalk of the highway, and thence had started to cross the track along the street, not on her way to the defendant’s station, but to some other place she had in mind.”

Creamer v. West End St. Ry. Co., 156 Mass. 320. The deceased left the car upon which he had been riding and started to cross the street to the sidewalk without looking to see if the way was clear, when he was struck and killed by a car coming upon a parallel track. The court held that the street is in no sense a passenger station for the safety of which a street railway company is responsible. “ When a passenger steps from the car upon the street, he becomes a traveller upon the highway, and terminates his relations as a passenger, and the railway company is not responsible to him as a carrier for the condition of the street, or for his safe passage from the car to the sidewalk.”

Smith v. City Ry. Co. 29 Ore. 539. Appellant left the west-bound car upon which she was a passenger and walked around the rear of that car upon the second track, where she was struck and injured by an east-bound car. The court say: “ The relation of passenger and carrier ceased when she alighted from the car, and thereafter the defendant owed her no other or different duty than it owed to any other ordinary traveller.”

Buzby v. Philadelphia Traction Co. 126 Pa. St. 559. The plaintiff, a passenger upon a cable car, got out on the north side of the car where he was in safety. Without waiting for the car to move on, he went around the rear of the car and crossed to the second track, when he was struck and injured by another car going east. The court say : <c The plaintiff had been carried to his destination, had alighted from the car in a place of safety, and his relation to the defendant as a passenger had ceased.”

Platt v. 42nd St. Ry. Co., 4 Thompson & Cook, N. Y. 406. The plaintiff left the street car by the front platform, and when six or eight feet from the car in the street? was thrown down and injured by the car horses, which had been detached from the cjir after plaintiff had left it, and were turning round. The court say: “ At the time when the accident occurred, plaintiff had ceased to be a passenger on the car of the defendant.”

Hanson v. Urbana, etc., Ry. Co., 75 Ill. App. 474. Plaintiff was struck by a servant of the defendant upon the street car on which plaintiff was then a passenger. After plaintiff had left the car, and was about twenty-five feet from it, the servant again assaulted and beat him. Plaintiff brought an action against the company for the wrong done him by its servant. One count of the declaration set up the occurrence in the car, and in another that which took place on the street. Each count set up the relation of carrier and passenger. The court held that the evidence sustained the first count, but that there could be no recovery, under the second. “ When the plaintiff in error arrived at his destination and safely alighted from the car on the public street, that then the contract of carrier and passenger was' at an end.”

W. C. St. Ry. Co.

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

Related

Ormond v. Hayes
60 Tex. 180 (Texas Supreme Court, 1883)
Allerton v. Boston & Maine Railroad
15 N.E. 621 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1888)
Creamer v. West End Street Railway Co.
31 N.E. 391 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1892)
Smith v. City Railway Co.
46 P. 136 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1896)
West Chicago St. R. R. v. Waniata
68 Ill. App. 481 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1897)
Hanson v. Urbana & Champaign El. St. Ry. Co.
75 Ill. App. 474 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1898)
West Chicago Street Railroad v. Walsh
78 Ill. App. 595 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1898)
West Chicago St. R. R. v. Kautz
89 Ill. App. 309 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1900)
West Chicago St. R. R. Co. v. Buckley
102 Ill. App. 314 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1902)
Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Crunk
21 N.E. 31 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1889)
Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad v. Athon
33 N.E. 469 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1893)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
118 Ill. App. 278, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 211, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-union-traction-co-v-rosenthal-illappct-1905.