Harp v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad

213 N.E.2d 632, 66 Ill. App. 2d 33, 1966 Ill. App. LEXIS 1244
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 4, 1966
DocketGen. 65-62
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 213 N.E.2d 632 (Harp v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad) 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
Harp v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad, 213 N.E.2d 632, 66 Ill. App. 2d 33, 1966 Ill. App. LEXIS 1244 (Ill. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

GOLDENHERSH, P. J.

Plaintiff filed suit in the Circuit Court of Madison County, alleging that defendant was a common carrier by railroad, that plaintiff was employed by defendant in furtherance of its business in interstate commerce and brings his suit under the provisions of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, that plaintiff fell and was injured while on the lot maintained, controlled and used by defendant for parking of its employees’ vehicles. The complaint charges defendant was negligent in failing to provide plaintiff with safe means of ingress and egress to his place of work, failure to provide sufficient lighting whereby plaintiff could see en route to his job, and failure to provide plaintiff with a safe place in which to work. The complaint also contained a general allegation of negligence.

Defendant answered, took plaintiff’s discovery deposition, and filed a motion for summary judgment, supported by affidavits of two of its employees. Plaintiff filed counter affidavits. The court allowed defendant’s motion for summary judgment, entered judgment in favor of defendant in bar of suit, and plaintiff appealed.

The motion for summary judgment states that it is shown in plaintiff’s discovery deposition that he was injured at 10:30 p. m., that he was not “due to go to work” until 11:00 p. m., that on a photograph presented to plaintiff during the taking of the discovery deposition, he marked the exact place at which he fell, and the motion should be allowed for the reasons that plaintiff was not in the course of his employment at the time he fell, and the fall occurred on premises not owned, managed, controlled or used in any manner by defendant.

From plaintiff’s discovery deposition it appears that at 10:30 p. m. on May 21, 1964, plaintiff parked his car in one of 15 parking spaces adjacent to a building known as the Pullman Building, and walked in a northerly direction toward the locker room where he intended to change into his work clothes, that approximately 20 to 30 feet south of the stairs leading to the locker room, he fell into a hole and was injured. The hole was situated 40 to 50 feet north of the place where plaintiff had parked his car. He stated he had always parked in the same general area, that is, on a lot situated to the south of the stairs leading to the locker room. Usually he parked on the east side of the lot, but on the night in question, some one had taken his usual parking space, and he parked at the side of the Pullman Building, which building is situated on the west side of the lot. This was the first time in about six months that he had parked on the side of the Pullman Building. No one had ever told him he could park on the lot, he had seen other of defendant’s employees, including foremen and a master mechanic, park there, and he did likewise. No one had ever told him who owned the property where he parked, or the property where he fell, and so far as he knew it was owned by defendant.

In an affidavit filed in support of defendant’s motion, the affiant identified a lease which showed defendant to be the lessee of certain premises owned by another railroad, and a survey plat of the premises leased. The plat shows the steps leading to the locker room to be 5 feet north of the south boundary of the property leased by defendant, and places the hole, into which plaintiff fell 221/2 feet south of the boundary line, and therefore not on the premises leased to defendant.

A second affidavit filed in support of defendant’s motion states that plaintiff did not fall on property “leased, owned, maintained, used or controlled in any manner by defendant.”

In an affidavit filed by plaintiff in opposition to the motion for summary judgment, the affiant states he has been employed by defendant for many years, that during that time, employees of defendant have parked in the area where plaintiff was injured, that equipment owned by-defendant was regularly moved back and forth across the same area.

In plaintiff’s affidavit filed in opposition to the motion, in addition to what was said in his discovery deposition, he stated he had frequently seen defendant’s equipment move back and forth across the area where he fell.

In the order granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the court found that the time factor was insufficient to justify the allowance of the motion. The order continues, “However, inasmuch as it is conclusively shown by the Motion for Summary Judgment that the plaintiff fell upon land not owned or leased by the defendant, and not under defendant’s control, which land was nevertheless used by defendant’s employees and also by defendant in the course of its business, as shown by plaintiff’s Affidavits, and this cause being predicated upon the Federal Employers’ Liability Act and not upon the Workmen’s Compensation Act, in the opinion of the court, there are no cases which would allow an action of this kind against the defendant.” The court further found that the case “does not come under the purview of Section 51 of Title 45, USCA, and known as the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.”

Plaintiff contends that a jury, with reason, could find that defendant was negligent in that its equipment may have created the condition which caused plaintiff’s injury, that since the area in which the plaintiff was injured was in close proximity and adjacent to the entrance to the locker room entrance, defendant failed to provide sufficient lighting, or if defendant did not in fact use, manage, control or own the premises, it was nevertheless negligent in failing to provide a safe approach to the locker room.

Defendant contends that in order to recover under Federal Employers’ Liability Act, plaintiff must prove he was injured while in the course of his employment, and as the result of defendant’s negligence, and neither requisite is present in this case.

The purpose of summary judgment proceedings is to determine whether there is any genuine triable issue of fact which must be passed upon. Gribben v. Interstate Motor Freight System Co., 18 Ill App2d 96, 151 NE2d 443. If the pleadings, discovery depositions and exhibits, present a genuine issue as to any material fact, summary judgment should not be granted. Halloran v. Belt Ry. Co. of Chicago, 25 Ill App2d 114, 166 NE2d 98. The right of the moving party to summary judgment must be free from doubt. Miller v. Owens-Illinois Glass Co., 48 Ill App2d 412, 199 NE2d 300. The affidavits filed in support of a motion for summary judgment will be strictly construed and must leave no question of the movant’s right to judgment, but the affidavits filed in opposition thereto will be liberally construed. Tansey v. Robinson, 24 Ill App2d 227, 164 NE2d 272.

In Urie v. Thompson, 337 US 163, 69 S Ct 1018, the Supreme Court of the United States, speaking of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, said, “What constitutes negligence for the statute’s purposes is a federal question, not varying in accordance with the differing conceptions of negligence applicable under state and local laws for other purposes.

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Bluebook (online)
213 N.E.2d 632, 66 Ill. App. 2d 33, 1966 Ill. App. LEXIS 1244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harp-v-gulf-mobile-ohio-railroad-illappct-1966.