Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. O'Connor

90 Ill. App. 142, 1899 Ill. App. LEXIS 767
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 5, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 90 Ill. App. 142 (Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. O'Connor) 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
Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. O'Connor, 90 Ill. App. 142, 1899 Ill. App. LEXIS 767 (Ill. Ct. App. 1900).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Windes

delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff’s declaration charges in substance that the appellant was guilty of wanton, willful and reckless negligence in backing its train of cars along its tracks, in violation of thj> city ordinance requiring it to keep a bright and conspicuous light on the rear car of the train while it was backing; also in violation of another ordinance requiring the bell on the engine to be rung continually while running within the city limits; also that appellant was guilty of wanton and willful negligence generally in the management and running of its train after dark along its tracks when it was aware that children and adults were liable to be crossing its tracks at the point in question.

The trial was had upon the assumption that plaintiff was a trespasser upon appellant’s railway tracks, and that there could be no recovery except upon the theory that under the circumstances shown appellant was guilty of willful or wanton negligence. There are some claims by appellant’s counsel that the court erred in the admission of evidence and in not awarding a new trial for the excessiveness of the verdict; but the principal and controlling questions are, first, as to whether there was error in submitting the cause to the jury, and, second, whether, if it was properly submitted to the jury, there is sufficient evidence of wanton or willful negligence to support the verdict and judgment thereon.

On the former appeal we said, referring to the conflict in the evidence as to the light on the car, the fact that there were no pickets on the stone wall at the foot of Twenty-fifth street, that there were pickets on this wall, both north and south of this street, that there were steps leading up from the street, and the coupling pins on the opposite side of the wall from the steps, and the offered evidence that great crowds of people were constantly crossing the tracks, and that thousands were constantly passing up and down the lake shore immediately east of defendant’s tracks between the hours of seven and nine p. m., that there was a case for submission to the jury, in view of all these facts and circumstances and the offered evidence, “ whether defendant was guilty of negligence, and if so, whether the acts constituting such negligence were liable to the construction of being in wanton and willful disregard of the rights and safety of the public generally, so as to amount in law to wanton and willful negligence.”

While, as will be seen from the statement preceding this opinion, the evidence actually presented on the second trial does not show that the railroad tracks at the place in question were habitually crossed by so many persons, nor that so many persons were constantly passing up and down the lake shore immediately east of defendant’s tracks as was offered to be shown, still we are of opinion that the evidence as produced tended to show that in fact large numbers of persons, estimated by the witnesses variously from twenty-five to three hundred or four hundred, were in the habit, on warm summer evenings, such as was the evening of the accident, of crossing the tracks at the foot' of Twenty-fifth street by way of the steps and coupling pins, and that large numbers of persons, stated by the witnesses to be from three hundred to one thousand, were in the habit on such evenings of passing up and down on the lake shore immediately east of defendant’s tracks, opposite and near the foot of Twenty-fifth street, and within a few blocks both north and south of that place, and that these facts were known to the servants of appellant who operated the train upon the evening in question—at least that they were known to the switchman, Hogan, who testified that he was upon the north car of the train in question. This evidence, for the reasons stated in our former opinion, and upon the authorities there cited, made a case proper for submission to the jury. Since our decision on the former appeal, we have had occasion, in the ease of Jelinski v. The Belt Ry. Co., 86 Ill. App. 535, to consider the liability of a railway company to a trespasser upon its tracks, in which it was held (citing numerous cases) that the railway company was under no obligation of care and caution in the movement of its trains to a trespasser, and could not be charged with liability except in case of willful or wanton negligence. In the case of R. R. Co. v. Murowski, 179 Ill. 77, also decided since the former appeal in this case, the plaintiff was injured while standing on the private property of the railroad company, having gone there with others for the purpose of procuring employment at a factory, the gate of which stood near the railroad tracks. It appeared that large numbers of men were in the habit of crossing the railroad tracks at this point, and that persons in search of employment were in the habit of congregating on the tracks and in front of the factory gate, and it appeared that the railroad company never made any objection to this use of its property. It was held that it was a question of fact for the jury to determine whether or not the plaintiff was a trespasser, and a judgment in his favor was affirmed, although the court instructed the jury, in substance, that if they believed the plaintiff was a trespasser, they should find for the defendant, unless they also believed from the evidence that the plaintiff was struck by reason of the wanton or willful negligence of the defendant’s servants. The case at bar differs from the Murowski case in that we think the evidence shows plaintiff was a trespasser. In speaking on the question of negligence of the railroad company the court say:

“ Whether the defendant was guilty of willful or wanton conduct or gross negligence, was purely a question of fact for the jury to determine from all the evidence introduced by the respective parties bearing upon that point in the case, and it was not the province of the court to inform the jury that some particular fact in the case was conclusive on that question.”

The special act of negligence complained of was in starting the engine without ringing the bell or sounding the whistle, as required by statute, and in moving the engine in the city in violation of the same ordinance as to ringing the bell as in this case.

In view of these decisions, and after a full consideration of all the evidence, we think this case was properly submitted to jury.

As to the second question, whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain a finding that appellant was guilty of willful or wanton negligence, more difficulty is presented.

There is a conflict, as we have seen, as to whether there was a light or switchman upon the north car of the backing train at the time of the accident. The majority of the court, not including the writer, is of opinion that the preponderance of the evidence shows that there were both lights and a switchman on the car.

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Bluebook (online)
90 Ill. App. 142, 1899 Ill. App. LEXIS 767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/illinois-central-r-r-co-v-oconnor-illappct-1900.