Gasperik v. Simons

260 N.E.2d 458, 124 Ill. App. 2d 360, 1970 Ill. App. LEXIS 1508
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 19, 1970
DocketGen. 53,427
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 260 N.E.2d 458 (Gasperik v. Simons) 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
Gasperik v. Simons, 260 N.E.2d 458, 124 Ill. App. 2d 360, 1970 Ill. App. LEXIS 1508 (Ill. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE LEIGHTON

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit to recover for personal injuries which plaintiff suffered in a crosswalk collision with defendant’s automobile. A jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. Plaintiff’s post-trial motion was overruled and judgment entered on the verdict. In this appeal it is contended that (1) the trial judge erred in refusing to give the jury three instructions tendered by plaintiff; (2) the statute defining rights of a pedestrian in a crosswalk should be construed to give the pedestrian an absolute right of way over a motorist; (3) the conduct of the trial judge was prejudicial to plaintiff’s rights to a fair trial; and (4) the manifest weight of the evidence warrants a reversal of the judgment in favor of defendant.

On Saturday, February 3, 1962, between 12:05 and 12:10 p. m., defendant, an eighth grade mathematics teacher, was driving her blue Ford sedan westerly on Granville Avenue approaching the intersection of Green-view Avenue, a north-south street in Chicago. On the north side of Granville, 100 feet east of Greenview, facing westbound traffic, was a sign “Children Crossing.” Gran-ville, west of Broadway, is a residential street wide enough for cars to park on each side with lanes for east and westbound vehicular traffic. Glenwood is one block east of Greenview. On the northwest corner of Granville and Glenwood was St. Gertrude’s Parochial School.

On that day, and at about the time that defendant was driving her automobile west on Granville, Charlene Gasperik, nine and a half years old, left St. Gertrude’s gym with her sister, the plaintiff who was then seven years, nine months old. They walked west on Granville on the south side of the street to Greenview, crossed Green-view to the west side. Just before plaintiff and her sister reached the southwest corner of Granville and Greenview, a laundry truck, going east on Granville reached Greenview and indicated with its turning signals that it was going to turn left and go north. Behind this truck, but waiting west of the crosswalk, was an automobile driven by Charles Dennen. The weather was “[r]ainy, sort of icy, freezing drizzle, real nasty.”

When defendant was a half block from the intersection of Granville and Greenview she saw the eastbound laundry truck and saw its position indicating it was going to turn left. The truck blocked defendant’s view of the crosswalk behind it. Defendant saw no pedestrians on the curb or the crosswalk. She did not sound her horn, she did not stop nor give any warning of her approach. Defendant checked traffic coming in and out of Green-view and proceeded west going past the truck at a speed of about ten to twenty miles per hour.

Plaintiff and her sister Charlene saw defendant’s automobile as it neared the crosswalk they intended to use to go from the south side of Granville to the north side. Before defendant’s car crossed the intersection, the children made two or three efforts to go across. Finally, plaintiff ran ahead of her sister just as defendant’s automobile reached the west side of Greenview Avenue. Gilbert R. Williams, driver of the laundry truck, and Charles Dennen, driver of the car that was west of the crosswalk, saw plaintiff run into the left rear portion of defendant’s car. From the collision that resulted, plaintiff suffered injuries for which she was hospitalized.

To recover for these injuries plaintiff alleged that defendant was causally guilty of careless and negligent acts of failing to maintain a proper lookout for pedestrians in the crosswalk, failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing the crosswalk and failing to sound the horn of her car or otherwise give signal of its approach. Ill Rev Stats 1961, c 95%, § 171(a), defined the obligations of a motorist to a pedestrian crossing within any marked crosswalk at an intersection. Two provisions of the Municipal Code of Chicago, chapter 27, sections 257 and 264, required a motorist to sound the horn of his car “when necessary,” exercise “proper precaution upon observing any child or any confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway,” and use the horn of his car to give audible warning when reasonably necessary to insure its safe operation. Plaintiff requested but the court refused to give the jury her instructions 15, 16 and 17 which stated the substance of these three provisions. This refusal is said to be error.

Instructions to a jury must, in a concise and comprehensive manner, inform it what the issues are, must state the applicable principles of law and describe the facts the jury must find in order to justify its verdict. Geiselman v. Strubhar, 302 Ill App 23, 26, 23 NE2d 383; Norton v. Cook, 14 Ill App2d 390, 144 NE2d 847. Plaintiff’s instruction 15 contained a rule of law not applicable to the case. There was no evidence by which the jury could find that defendant failed to yield the right of way, slow down or stop for plaintiff, a pedestrian in the west crosswalk of Greenview Avenue at the time of the accident. The evidence showed that plaintiff ran into the left rear portion of defendant’s car after it entered the crosswalk.

Further, there was evidence that a laundry truck was east of the crosswalk blocking defendant’s view of any pedestrian on the west side of Greenview crossing the south side of Granville to the north. Before the statute on which plaintiff relied can have application, there must be evidence that the motorist saw, or in the exercise of reasonable care could have seen, a pedestrian on the crosswalk in question.

Plaintiff’s instructions 16 and 17 had the same defect. Both stated rules of law which had no application to the facts of plaintiff’s case. Instruction 16 applies when a motorist observes “any child or any confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway.” There was no evidence that defendant observed plaintiff upon a roadway. In the absence of evidence that plaintiff was “confused or incapacitated,” the trial judge correctly refused to give this instruction. Quigley v. Snoddy, 102 Ill App2d 232, 237, 242 NE2d 775. Instruction 17 applies when sounding the horn of a car is necessary for its safe operation. Plaintiff’s evidence was that she and her sister saw defendant’s car as it approached. Therefore, it was not necessary for defendant to sound the horn of her vehicle. See Sparks v. Long, 234 Iowa 21, 11 NW2d 716 (1943). For these reasons, the court did not err in its rulings on the instructions.

Plaintiff next contends that the statute which defines the obligations of a motorist to a pedestrian crossing within any marked crosswalk (Ill Rev Stats 1961, c 95%, § 171) should be construed to give the pedestrian an absolute right of way over the motorist. Plaintiff invites us “to drop a ‘bombshell’ on the present concept of the law with relation to the rights of pedestrians in a crosswalk and the duty of an automobile driver . . . .” We decline this invitation because our Supreme Court has decided that “[t]he right-of-way statute does not give a pedestrian, on a crosswalk, the right of way over all vehicles on the street under any and all circumstances. Each case must be considered in the light of the facts and the circumstances surrounding it. The pedestrian’s right of way is not absolute because both he and the vehicle happen to be on the street at the same time. . . .” Moran v. Gatz, 390 Ill 478 at 486, 62 NE2d 443. This pronouncement is dispositive of plaintiff’s contention.

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Bluebook (online)
260 N.E.2d 458, 124 Ill. App. 2d 360, 1970 Ill. App. LEXIS 1508, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gasperik-v-simons-illappct-1970.