Hopfinger v. O'Banion

73 N.E.2d 145, 331 Ill. App. 302, 1947 Ill. App. LEXIS 275
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided April 23, 1947·No. Term No. 47F12·Published

Opinion

Mr. Justice Bartley

delivered the opinion of the court.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of the circuit court of St. Clair county in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for $3,000 growing out of an automobile collision caused by alleged negligence of the defendant and a judgment on the verdict of “not guilty” on the counterclaim of the defendant against the plaintiff for alleged damages growing out of the same collision to defendant’s automobile.

The errors assigned and argued by the defendant are: The verdict of the jury and the judgment entered by the trial court is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence; that the verdict and judgment is so excessive as to indicate passion and prejudice on the part of the jury; that the trial court erred in giving certain instructions requested by the plaintiff and in refusing certain instructions requested by the defendant, and that the trial court erred in not granting defendant’s motion for a new trial because of newly discovered evidence.

Negligence charged by the plaintiff was that the de-' fendant was driving at an unreasonable rate of speed contrary to the statute; failure to blow a horn contrary to the statute; failure to keep to the right of the black or center line on the highway or street contrary to the statute; negligently and carelessly attempting to pass another vehicle when the way was not clear, in viola-tion of the statute, and general negligence and carelessness.

The evidence shows that the plaintiff was driving alone in his 1935 Plymouth Coach automobile west on West Main street in the City of Belleville at approximately 12:15 on the morning of February 19, 1945. The highway was a four-lane paved highway with considerable ice on the south side of the street. The north side was clear. Plaintiff’s automobile was traveling west and defendant’s automobile was traveling east. Lights on both cars were burning and the evidence indicates they were each driving from 15 to 20 miles per hour. From there on, the evidence as to how the collision occurred becomes conflicting. Witnesses on the part of the plaintiff testified that defendant’s car suddenly came across the center line of the highway to plaintiff’s lane of travel and struck plaintiff’s car so quickly that he was unable to avoid the collision. Witnesses on the part of the defendant testified that plaintiff’s automobile came across the center line of the highway into the lane of travel of the defendant so quickly that he was unable to avoid the collision. Plaintiff testified that the defendant swerved around an automobile which was pulling away from the south side of West Main street, and drove across the center or black line and into plaintiff’s car.

From this statement of the evidence it readily appears that the issue of negligence, contributory negligence and proximate cause presented purely a question of fact for the jury to decide. We conclude, therefore, that the verdict and the judgment of the court is not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.

Defendant seriously argues that because the plaintiff testified that the defendant was pulling around another automobile which was pulling out from the curb, that this obviates the liability of the defendant. In this view of the evidentiary facts, plaintiff is not in accord with other witnesses and the issues were to be determined by the jury, of course, on all of the evidence. Moreover, where cars are frequently parked along the sides of a street, the driver of an automobile along such street, in the exercise of reasonable care, is bound to anticipate that cars so parked may turn into the street and it is his duty to use reasonable care to have his automobile under such control as to enable him to avoid accidents with others cars, whether parked or traveling in the accustomed line of traffic. (Harrison v. Bingheim, 350 Ill. 269.)

As to the claim that the verdict and judgment is excessive, and so excessive as to indicate passion and prejudice on the part of the jury, the evidence shows that plaintiff’s injuries were serious and severe. He suffered a brain concussion, head injuries, chest injuries, a back injury, his teeth were knocked loose, nose injuries, a left leg injury and a right knee injury. He suffered out-of-pocket a pecuniary loss amounting to $460. At the time of the trial he still suffered headaches as a result of the head injury, had difficulty in chewing his food and various other parts of his body gave him pain. The fixing of the amount of damages for personal injuries is peculiarly within the province of the jury, there being no legal standard by which to measure the amount of damages to be awarded. (Crane v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 293 Ill. App. 328.) Damages awarded in this case in our opinion are not excessive and do not indicate passion and prejudice.

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Hopfinger v. O'Banion, 73 N.E.2d 145, 331 Ill. App. 302, 1947 Ill. App. LEXIS 275 (Ill. Ct. App. 1947).

73 N.E.2d 145 (Hopfinger v. O'Banion) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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