Goldberg v. Capitol Freight Lines, Ltd.

41 N.E.2d 302, 314 Ill. App. 347, 1942 Ill. App. LEXIS 1002
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 20, 1942
DocketGen. No. 41,883
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 41 N.E.2d 302 (Goldberg v. Capitol Freight Lines, Ltd.) 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
Goldberg v. Capitol Freight Lines, Ltd., 41 N.E.2d 302, 314 Ill. App. 347, 1942 Ill. App. LEXIS 1002 (Ill. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

Mr. Justice O’Connor

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff brought an action against defendants to recover damages for personal injuries claimed to have resulted from their negligence. During the trial plaintiff dismissed as to defendants, Lloyd Gisinger and Arthur J. Gisinger. There was a verdict in plaintiff’s favor against the three remaining defendants for $85,-000. The court required a remittitur of $25,000, judgment was entered for $60,000 and two of the defendants, Bluebird System, Inc., a corporation, and Bluebird Coach Lines, Inc., a corporation, appeal.

The record discloses that plaintiff, a young woman about 22 years of age, lived at 1618 S. Homan avenue and was employed downtown as a stenographer. About 8:20 o’clock on the morning of May 17, 1939, she left her home for her place of employment, downtown, walked south on the west side of Homan avenue intending to take a downtown street car on Ogden avenue, a street extending northeast and southwest. She started across Ogden avenue on the south cross-walk and when she was somewhere near the first street car rail was struck by a bus of the Bluebird System then being-driven southwesterly in Ogden avenue. The accident was caused by a collision between the bus and a truck belonging to defendant, Capitol Freight Lines, Ltd., which was being driven by defendant, Lloyd Gisinger, northeasterly in the easterly street car track and which turned to the left into Homan avenue.

Ogden avenue at this point is a “through” street, 110 feet wide from curb to curb and 160 feet wide from building line to building line. There were two street car tracks in Ogden avenue, which occupy a space of 18 feet 9 inches in the center of the street. The tracks are 8 feet 6 inches apart. The trolley poles are located between the two tracks and have cross bars on them to which the power wires are attached. The pavement from the street car track to the curbs is more than 45 feet. There are two safety islands in Ogden avenue on each side of its intersection with Homan avenue, one of them outside the southeastern rail of the downtown street car track and the other outside the northwesterly rail for street cars going in the opposite direction. Homan avenue is 30 feet 3 inches wide from curb to curb and runs north and south. The street is 66 feet wide. Both streets are well paved with asphalt and concrete except the two street car tracks and the space between them in Ogden which are paved with brick.

The bus was being driven from somewhere in downtown Chicago to Joliet. The morning was bright and the streets in good condition.

Plaintiff testified that as she started across Ogden avenue she saw an automobile and the bus coming down Ogden avenue. The automobile apparently passed behind her and she stopped to let the bus which she said was coming “very fast” pass in front of her, when suddenly the bus turned sharply to the right, collided with the truck which had turned into Homan avenue, and struck her. The evidence shows she was dragged southwesterly by the bus, to where it stopped on the sidewalk, a distance of about 60 or 70 feet, on the southwestern side of Ogden and Homan avenues. She was taken from underneath the bus back of the front wheel. The left front of the bus collided with the right front of the truck, and the pictures in the record indicate that the vehicles came together with a great deal of force. Plaintiff’s evidence is further to the effect that the bus was being driven southwesterly in Ogden avenue some distance from the street car track, while evidence on behalf of the Bluebird Company is to the effect that the bus was being driven southwesterly in the street car track.

Defendant Lloyd Gisinger, a young man about 26 years of age, who lived at Cisco, Illinois, was driving the truck and his uncle, Arthur J. Gisinger, a defendant, was in the bunk back of the driver’s seat of the truck. They were bringing a load of ammunition and brass which they picked up the evening before at East Alton, Illinois, and were to make delivery at 1401 Fulton Street at the corner of Ogden avenue, about 3 miles further on from the place of the accident. The approximate weight of the tractor was 6,200 pounds, the trailer unloaded was 9,000 pounds and they had a load of about 17,000 pounds. The testimony of Lloyd Gisinger was that he and his uncle took turns at driving and on the morning in question he had driven from Pontiac to the place of the accident; that just before the accident he was driving northeasterly in the street car track at a speed of about 15 to 20 miles per hour; that he and his uncle were both familiar with driving on Ogden avenue, in Chicago; that they had been hauling loads of merchandise over this street for some time prior to the accident. He further testified that when he was about a block from Ploman avenue, where the accident occurred, a small, red delivery truck was being driven to his right northeasterly in Ogden avenue, and just before it reached Homan avenue cut in to the left in front of him and suddenly stopped at Homan avenue, that to avoid running into this small delivery truck he turned sharply to the left into Homan avenue and the collision occurred.

The evidence of the Bus Company is to the effect that the bus was not being driven fast; that the speed was about 20 to 25 miles per hour and when the bus had reached a point near the street intersection, the truck turned abruptly to the left in front of the bus and the driver of the bus, in an endeavor to prevent a collision, turned sharply to the right. The driver testified he did not see plaintiff at all.

There is a great deal of other evidence in the record. A number of physicians were called by plaintiff and testified at considerable length, some of them as to the treatment they administered to plaintiff. Some others answered hypothetical questions, and the testimony is that plaintiff was very severely and permanently injured.

Counsel for the Bus Company contend the court erred in refusing to direct a verdict in its favor at the close of plaintiff’s evidence and again when it renewed its motion at the close of all its evidence.

The motion made by the Bus Company at the close of plaintiff’s evidence could not be renewed after the Bus Company put in evidence, and the motion could not be reserved, as the court attempted to do. When defendants put in evidence after making their motion at the close of plaintiff’s case, for a directed verdict, that motion was out of the case for all time. It could not be reserved and it could not be renewed. Popadowski v. Bergaman, 304 Ill. App. 422; Kahler v. Marchi, 307 Ill. App. 23; Hirshman v. National Mineral Co., 311 Ill. App. 169.

In the.Popadowski case we said: “Where a defendant makes a motion at the close of plaintiff’s case for a directed verdict, if he desires to save his point, he must introduce no evidence. But if he puts in his evidence and desires a directed verdict, he must make a second motion for a directed verdict. The court in passing on the second motion, must do so in view of all the evidence. (Cook v. Aevermann, 244 Ill. App. 644 (Abst.); Joliet A. & N. Ry. Co. v. Velie, 140 Ill. 59; Fowler v. Chicago & W. I. R. Co., 182 Ill. App. 123.) Some opinions inaccurately state the law to be that where a defendant moves for a dirécted verdict at the close of plaintiff’s case and the motion is overruled and defendant then introduces his evidence, he must ‘renew’ his motion at the close of all the evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
41 N.E.2d 302, 314 Ill. App. 347, 1942 Ill. App. LEXIS 1002, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goldberg-v-capitol-freight-lines-ltd-illappct-1942.