Mattoon City Railway Co. v. Graham

138 Ill. App. 70, 1907 Ill. App. LEXIS 700
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided December 7, 1907·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Puterbaugh

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action in case by Daniel Graham against the Mattoon City Bailway Company to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff, a motorneer in the employ of the defendant, through the alleged negligence of the defendant in the operation of its electric railroad. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and assessed his damages at $5,000. Motions by the defendant for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were overruled. From the judgment rendered upon said verdict this appeal is prosecuted by the defendant. At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence and again at the close of all the evidence, the conrt refused to direct a verdict for the defendant. The first count of the declaration as finally amended avers that the defendant owned and operated a single track railroad, and cars thereon, propelled by electricity, conveying goods and passengers, and maintained a switch east of Mattoon known as Jones switch; that it had in force a schedule or time table providing for the movement of all its regular trains, said schedule not covering irregular, special or extra trains; that while defendant was moving its train No. 11, in a direction from east to west, from Charleston to Mattoon, which train was one of the regular and scheduled trains aforesaid, thé plaintiff, as defendant’s motorman, by servants of defendant not fellow-servants, of plaintiff, was carelessly and negligently ordered to take a special irregular or extra car No. 18, not shown upon said time table or schedule, and proceed from Mattoon to Jones switch, and there meet said regular car No. 11, without notice to the servants on No. 11 of said order and directions to. the plaintiff, or of the presence or approach of the plaintiff in time to avoid the danger; that while said servants in charge of both said cars, were exercising reasonable care and caution, proceeding from opposite directions toward each other, before plaintiff had reached Jones switch, because of defendant’s negligence aforesaid, the said cars collided, and plaintiff was injured, etc.

The third additional count contains the same averments as in the first count and in addition thereto avers that the defendant negligently failed to adopt any reasonably safe system or method whereby said cars might be operated with reasonable safety -from collision one with the other, and whereby reasonable notice might be given to those operating each of said cars, of the presence and movement of each other upon said single track, within a time reasonably sufficient to avoid a collision between said cars.

The fifth additional count charges that the plaintiff was ordered to meet No. 11 at Jones switch, and that defendant disregarding its duty to give plaintiff a clear way to said meeting point, free from opposing trains, and to exercise reasonable care and caution, was executing his orders, proceeding to said meeting point, and before he had arrived at Jones switch, defendant negligently permitted No. 11 to be driven against him, and failed to exercise reasonable care for safety of plaintiff, and by means of defendant’s negligence in that regard, the collision and injury occurred.

Appellant operates an electric railway running east and from Mattoon to Charleston, a distance of about twelve miles. About seven blocks east of the starting point in Mattoon is a switch called Banana siding. One and three-quarters miles east thereof is another switch called Jones switch, further east is a station called Loda, which is about six miles from Mattoon, and still further east is Urban Park, at which baseball games were played upon several days of the week during the summer. Midway between Banana siding and Jones switch the track curved north for the distance of 1,325 feet, following which the track was straight for 375 feet and then again curved for about 1,615 feet. Two cars were regularly operated on the line which made the trip between the two cities in about thirty minutes. Car No. 11, in charge of one Holmes, was scheduled to leave Charleston for Mattoon at l :45 p. m., and car No. 12, which was appellee’s regular car, to leave Charleston at the same hour.

On the day in question appellee was relieved of his regular run and assigned to run an extra car, No. 18, to Urban Park for the accommodation of persons who desired to attend a baseball game which was to be played there that day. The usual time from Charleston to Jones switch was about twenty minutes, and from the latter station to Mattoon about ten minutes. Appellee was directed to meet No. 11 at Jones switch, but the crew in charge of No. 11 were not notified in any way of the running of the extra car nor were they given any orders or directions as to a meeting point. The extra car left Charleston from five to fifteen minutes after two o’clock. Upon the stretch of straight track, the extra car met and collided with No. 11 coming from the east.

Appellee testified that when he first saw No. 11 it was about 150 yards distant, coming around the east curve; that his car was running at about forty miles an hour; that he at once shut oft the power and applied the air brakes reducing the speed at the time of the collision to about seven or eight miles an hour. As the cars came together appellee jumped from his car and sustained the injuries complained of in the declaration.

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Mattoon City Railway Co. v. Graham, 138 Ill. App. 70, 1907 Ill. App. LEXIS 700 (Ill. Ct. App. 1907).

138 Ill. App. 70 (Mattoon City Railway Co. v. Graham) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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