Garlinski v. Chicago City Railway Co.

257 Ill. App. 414, 1930 Ill. App. LEXIS 332
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 14, 1930
DocketGen. No. 33,832
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 257 Ill. App. 414 (Garlinski v. Chicago City Railway Co.) 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
Garlinski v. Chicago City Railway Co., 257 Ill. App. 414, 1930 Ill. App. LEXIS 332 (Ill. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Wilson

delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff, "John Gfarlinsld, administrator of the estate of Joseph Gfarlinsld, deceased, brought this action in the circuit court of Cook county against the defendants, Chicago City Railway Company, Calumet and South Chicago Railway Company, corporations, and Henry A. Blair and Frederick H. Rawson, as surviving receivers of Chicago Railways Company, a corporation, doing business as Chicago Surface Lines, to recover for the death of Joseph Gfarlinsld, on the ground that the death was caused by the negligence of the defendants. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $6,000, from which judgment this appeal has been taken to this court.

The amended declaration originally consisted of six counts, of which the fourth, fifth and sixth were dismissed on motion of plaintiff at the close of plaintiff’s case.

The first count of the amended declaration charged that defendants were operating a city railways system along Milwaukee Avenue and that, on the day of the accident, they were running and operating a certain motor car and trailer in a southeasterly direction along said street,- that plaintiff’s intestate was about to become a passenger, but the defendants so negligently and carelessly operated said car that plaintiff’s intestate was thrown upon the ground and killed. The count further alleged that the deceased left him surviving a father, mother and two brothers.

The second count charged that plaintiff’s intestate was about to become a passenger on said car and it was the duty of the defendants to give him a reasonable opportunity to board said car in safety, but the defendants carelessly and negligently caused said car to be suddenly started and the door of said car to .be suddenly closed while plaintiff’s intestate was in the act of boarding said car, so that a portion of his clothing was caught, and fastened between the edge of said door and the body of said street car, and he was thrown to the ground and killed.

The third count alleged negligence on the part of the defendants in causing one of their cars to suddenly start forward while plaintiff’s intestate was in the act of boarding said car.

The street car in question consisted of a motor and a trailer, each of which was between 48 and 50 feet in length and joined by a coupler bumper. The motorman was stationed on the front of the motor car, which preceded the trailer and there was a conductor upon the front or motor car and another conductor upon the trailer. Both cars were pay-as-you-enter cars, with folding doors at the front and rear; they were known as “double end” cars; the doors at all four corners of the cars were the same. Bach entrance to the platform of the car had two separate doors, one for entering passengers and the other for dismounting passengers. The doors consisted of panels which folded against each other when the door was opened. When the doors were closed, the panels spread out and made a flat surface, and at the same time the step of the car was raised só that it became flush with the closed doors of the car. The doors and the step worked in conjunction by reason of some mechanical operation. This operation, in the case of the trailer, was controlled by the conductor while standing upon the front platform of the trailer, by means of air pressure regulated by a pedal or handle.

The accident to plaintiff’s intestate is charged to have occurred while he was in the act of boarding the front platform of the trailer. It appears that these cars were so constructed that, while any one of the doors was open, the electric circuit was disconnected and the cars could not be started. It was, however, possible to disconnect these switches so that the car could be run even though one or more of the doors of the car or trailer were open. There was also on the front platform of the front car occupied by the motorman, a light which indicated when the doors were open and when they were closed.

The accident happened at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue, North Avenue and Bobey Street, three intersecting streets in the City of Chicago. Upon each of these streets was a car line. Stop and go lights were in operation at this point for the purpose of regulating traffic on the three streets. The car and trailer in question was bound in a southeasterly direction over Milwaukee Avenue and had reached this intersection just prior to the time of the accident. A stop was made at this point for the purpose of permitting passengers to alight from and board said two-car train and, while they were in the act of doing this, the red light came on and it was necessary for said train to remain at that point until it-got the signal to go.

The accident in question happened about 7:40 o’clock in the morning of January 22, 1927. There is evidence that there was ice on the street and it also appears that it was a busy street intersection. Many persons alighted from and boarded said train at this point. Those in charge of this two-car train- testified on behalf of the defendants, that they did not see plaintiff’s intestate, nor witness the accident. The conductor on the trailer said that he could from his position have seen, with the doors closed, any person close to the door at the time the car started, but that he saw no one. The only eye-witnesses to the accident were three men who testified on behalf of the plaintiff.

Eoarty, the first witness, testified that he saw Garlinski running along by the side of the car while it was standing still, that he, Eoarty, then turned and walked north and heard plaintiff’s intestate cry out and saw him in a falling position and that it appeared as if his overcoat was caught on some obstacle on the car.

The two other witnesses, Green and Simpson, were city firemen who were driving in a Dodge sedan in the same direction in which the two-car train was proceeding. They were on the southwest side of Milwaukee Avenue between the trailer and the curb, with the front end of their car about opposite the middle of the trailer. The automible was driven by Simpson and he stopped it at this point while the passengers were boarding and alighting from the street car. The red light was on at the street intersection.

Green testified that he saw the boy trying to get on the front car and that the door was closed; that he then went to the rear car; that at the time he went to the rear car there were eight or ten people boarding it and the next time he saw plaintiff’s intestate the doors were closed and plaintiff’s intestate was rolling along under the street car.

Simpson, the driver of the Dodge sedan, testified that at the- time of the accident there were quite a few people getting on the car and plaintiff’s intestate stepped off of the curb and went toward the rear entrance of the front car and, as he did so, the doors closed and he then went toward the trailer to get on the front entrance; when he got there he had his foot up and at the same time the doors closed and caught his coat in the door and the street car started.

It appears that those in charge of the two-car train were unaware of the accident and it proceeded down Milwaukee Avenue a considerable distance before those in charge of the two-car train were notified that an accident had happened.

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Related

Katamay v. Chicago Transit Authority
273 N.E.2d 510 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1971)
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40 N.E.2d 598 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
257 Ill. App. 414, 1930 Ill. App. LEXIS 332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garlinski-v-chicago-city-railway-co-illappct-1930.