Kellyville Coal Co. v. Strine

75 N.E. 375, 217 Ill. 516
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 24, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 75 N.E. 375 (Kellyville Coal Co. v. Strine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kellyville Coal Co. v. Strine, 75 N.E. 375, 217 Ill. 516 (Ill. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the court:

The first, second and fourth counts of the declaration charge a willful failure to deliver timbers to appellee upon his order, and that such willful failure was the cause of the accident and injuries sustained by him. The evidence under these counts was conflicting. The issues under the third count were, whether or not there had been a failure by the appellant company to have the room examined by its mine examiner on the night preceding the accident, and whether or not there had been a failure by said examiner to place a conspicuous mark thereat as notice to all men to keep out. The evidence upon the issues under the third count was also conflicting. There was evidence, however, tending to sustain the cause of action under all the counts, and therefore, under the repeated rulings of this court, no error was committed by the trial court in refusing to instruct the jury to find for the defendant below. The questions of fact are all settled by the judgment of the circuit court in favor of plaintiff below, and the judgment of the Appellate Court affirming the same. The only questions, therefore, which remain for our consideration, are questions of law.

First—Before the beginning of the trial in the court below the appellant made a motion for a continuance of the cause, and filed an affidavit in support thereof. The court refused to grant the continuance, and this refusal is assigned as error. Appellant proposed to show by a witness, named Crayton, who was absent in Indiana on account of sickness, that he was in appellee’s room in the mine shortly before the accident occurred and discovered that the rock, which after-wards fell upon the appellee, was loose and dangerous, and called appellee’s attention to it, and told him that it was dangerous, and advised him not to go under it. The declared object of the appellant was to prove by this absent witness, that appellee not only had notice of the defect, but also had notice that it was a dangerous defect. The court did not err in refusing the continuance, because the testimony of the absent witness, if he had been present and testified, was immaterial in this kind of a case. And not only was this so, but the result could not have been affected by the proposed evidence of. Crayton, inasmuch as appellee admitted that, before the accident, he had knowledge of the condition, which Crayton was to testify to.

Section 18 of the act of April 18, 1899, “to revise the laws in relation to coal mines and subjects relating thereto, and providing for the health and safety of persons employed therein,” provides that “a mine examiner shall be required at all mines. His duty shall be to visit the mine before the men are permitted to enter it, and, first, he shall see that the air current is traveling in its proper .course and in proper quantity. He shall then inspect all places where men are expected to pass or to work, and observe whether there are any * * * unsafe conditions. * * * As evidence of his examination of all working places, he shall inscribe on the walls of each, with chalk, the month and the day of the month of his visit. When working places are discovered in which * * * any dangerous conditions exist, he shall place a conspicuous mark thereat as notice to all men to keep out, and at once report his finding to the mine manager. No one shall be allowed to remain in any part of the mine, * * * nor to enter the mine to work therein, except under the direction of the mine manager, until .all conditions shall have been made safe. The mine examiner shall make a daily record of the conditions of the mine, as he has found it, in a book kept for that purpose, which shall be preserved in the office for the information of the company, the inspector and all other persons interested, and this record shall be made each morning before the miners are permitted to descend into the mine.” (4 Starr & Curt. Ann. Stat.—sup. ed.—p. 857). Section 4 of the old Mining law of 1879 required the mine to be examined, though it did not provide for the giving of a warning by a mark at the place of danger. (2 Starr & Curt. Ann. Stat.—2d ed.—p. 2719). Section 16 of the Mining law of 1899, provides that the mine manager shall visit and examine the various working places in the mine as often as practicable; and that “he shall always provide a sufficient supply of props, caps and timber delivered on the miners’ cars at the usual place when demanded, as nearly as possible, in suitable lengths and dimensions for the securing of the roof by the miners, and it shall be the duty of the miner to properly prop and secure his place with materials provided therefor.” (4 Starr & Curt. Ann. Stat.—sup. ed.—p. 855). Section 16 of the Mining law of May 28, 1879, provided that “the owner, agent or operator of every coal mine shall keep a supply of timber constantly on hand of sufficient length and dimensions to be used as props and cap-pieces, and shall deliver the same as required, with the miner’s empty car, so that the workmen may at all times be able to properly secure said workings for their own safety.” (2 Starr & Curt. Ann. Stat.—2d ed.—p. 2730).

In construing the mining laws of this State, including the sections above quoted and referred to, this court has always held that “mere contributory negligence on the part of a miner will not defeat a right of recovery, where he is injured by the willful disregard of the statute either by an act of omission or commission on the part of the owner, operator or manager. To hold that the same principle as to contributory negligence should be applied in case of one, who is injured in a mine, because the owner, operator or manager totally disregarded the statute, as in other cases of negligence, is to totally disregard the provisions of the constitution, which are mandatory in requiring the enactment of this character of legislation, and would destroy the effect of the statute and in no manner regard the duty of protecting the life and safety of miners.” (Carterville Coal Co. v. Abbott, 181 Ill. 495). If the appellee went under the overhanging piece of coal, knowing that it was loose and dangerous, all that can be said of'his conduct is that he was guilty of contributory negligence. As, however, contributory negligence on the part of the injured miner is not regarded as a defense, so as to defeat a recovery in this class of cases where there has been a willful disregard of the statute by failure on the part of the company to furnish suitable props and cap-pieces when they have been demanded, or to make a suitable and proper examination and inspection when the same was necessary, then the mere fact, that appellee had notice of the condition of the overhanging piece of coal was immaterial, and the refusal of the court to continue the cause, in order to obtain testimony to prove such notice, was not error. Indeed, appellant could not have been prejudiced in any way by overruling the motion for a continuance, because appellee admitted that he knew the condition of the rock.

Second—Counsel for the appellant makes an attack upon the cases decided by this court, which hold that contributory negligence on the part of an injured miner is no defense under the circumstances above stated, and quotes from cases decided in other States, which hold to the contrary. We are not disposed to recede from the decisions of this court upon this subject, and, in view of our adherence to these decisions, much of the argument of counsel and much of his criticism upon the instructions, given by the court below, need no further notice.

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Bluebook (online)
75 N.E. 375, 217 Ill. 516, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kellyville-coal-co-v-strine-ill-1905.