McNaught v. Davis

229 Ill. App. 253, 1923 Ill. App. LEXIS 35
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 23, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 229 Ill. App. 253 (McNaught v. Davis) 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
McNaught v. Davis, 229 Ill. App. 253, 1923 Ill. App. LEXIS 35 (Ill. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Shurtleee

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case was before this court at a former term, McNaught v. Hines, 220 Ill. App. 15, presenting the record of a former trial, in which all of the facts, testimony, evidence and circumstances of the injury to the deceased, and as to the' care and caution of deceased for his own safety, were presented to this court substantially the same as such facts, evidence, testimony and circumstances are presented in the record now before the court. A reference is made to the report of said case for a statement of the case, and it was held by this court, in the determination of the question of negligence on the part of appellant and due care and caution on the part of the deceased for his own safety, that: “Whether the train was operated in the manner which the evidence for appellee tended to prove, and, if so, whether such operation of the train was negligence which approximately caused the injury complained of under the conditions existing in the vicinity of the crossing, and whether the deceased was in the exercise of due care before and at the time of the injury were questions of fact for the jury to determine,” and the judgment of the lower court was affirmed.

In the record as formerly presented in said cause at the former term, appellant, defendant below, had filed in the lower court a special plea in which it was averred that the Wink Packing Company, the employer of deceased at the time of his death, was a corporation organized under the laws of this State and engaged in an extrahazardous business in which statutory and municipal ordinances and regulations were imposed for regulating, guarding and placing of machinery or appliances for the protection and safeguarding of its employees; that deceased, Elza McNaught, was killed while engaged in the duties of his employment, and that both employer and employee were, and neither had elected not to be, bound by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act then in force, and demurrer was filed to this special plea and sustained and the trial was had under the plea of general issue.

In the record as formerly presented to this court it appeared that the declaration of appellee in the lower court charged the appellant, in various counts, with negligence causing the death of Elza McNaught, but said declaration did not set out the employment of the deceased nor the fact that the deceased and his employer at the time of his death were under the jurisdiction of the State Compensation Act.

On the first trial, plaintiff below, appellee here, recovered a judgment which was affirmed in this court, reported as stated, supra, this court holding that the lower court was not in error in sustaining appellee’s demurrer to the special plea of appellant in the court below.

A writ of error was taken by appellant from the judgment of this court, in the former hearing, to the Supreme Court of the State and upon a hearing in the Supreme Court on the record as hereinbefore set out, the judgment of this court was reversed and the cause remanded to the circuit court with directions to overrule the demurrer and to proceed in harmony with the views expressed in the opinion of the Supreme Court. (See opinion, 300 Ill. 167.) A careful reading of that opinion indicates that the only ground upon which the reversal was had was the error of the circuit court in sustaining the demurrer to appellant’s special plea in the court below, which had been affirmed by this court.

The injury occurred on January 24, 1918, in the county of Tazewell and suit was first brought and declaration filed January 21, 1919, in the McLean county circuit court. Upon redocketing said cause in the circuit court of McLean county, demurrer to said additional plea was overruled in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court. Plaintiff then filed replication to defendant’s additional plea, which replication averred that on, to wit, January 24, 1918, the defendant, by and through his agents and servants, inflicted the injury complained of upon said Elza McNaught and caused his death, as in the plaintiff’s declaration alleged; that the defendant was by and through his said agents and servants engaged in the operation of an interstate train upon the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, to wit, an interstate and United States mail and passenger train, traveling from Indianapolis, Indiana, into the State of Illinois, to the City of Peoria, and was carrying United States mail and passengers from various points in the State of Indiana to the City of Peoria and other points in the State of Illinois, which railroad train was the identical train operated by the defendant through its said agents and servants which caused the injury resulting in the death of plaintiff’s intestate; that the defendant and his agents and servants in charge of said train were not under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law of the State of Illinois, and that the provisions of said law did not apply to the defendant, his servants and agents. This replication was filed February 6, 1922.

The defendant filed a general and special demurrer to plaintiff’s replication to the additional plea of June 3,1919, assigning the following grounds of special demurrer : First, the replication and the admissions and confessions therein contained together with the specific averments thereof allege a new and different cause of action from the cause of action- alleged in the declaration and constitutes a departure in pleading. Second, the replication under the law of the case as defined and prescribed by the Supreme Court in McNaught v. Hines, 300 Ill. 167, is not sufficient in law as an answer to defendant’s additional plea, filed June 3, 1919, and does not constitute a bar to the defense established by the facts averred in such plea and admitted by the replication. Third, plaintiff’s pleadings show now upon their face that plaintiff is depending upon the Compensation Act for a cause of action and fails to allege that the alleged injury was not proximately caused by the negligence of the employer and his employees.

The court below overruled said demurrer, to which ruling defendant excepted and elected to stand by said demurrer.

On May 16, 1922, plaintiff filed first and second additional replications to defendant’s additional plea, filed June 3, 1919. Defendant demurred to the same and the court sustained the said demurrer.

On the same date there was filed by the defendant a second additional plea, averring that the Wing Packing Company, the employer of deceased at the time of his death, was a corporation, organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, engaged in an extrahazardous business, in which statutory and municipal ordinances and regulations were imposed for regulating, guarding and placing of machinery or appliances and for the protection and safeguarding of its employees; that Elza McNaught, the decedent, was killed while engaged in the duties of his employment and that neither employer nor employee had elected not to be bound by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act then in force; and that the said Wing Packing Company and said Elza McNaught were covered by the provisions of the said Workmen’s Compensation Act then in force.

A general demurrer was filed to said plea and the following special grounds of demurrer were set forth:

“(1) Section 6 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act [Cahill’s Ill. St. ch.

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Bluebook (online)
229 Ill. App. 253, 1923 Ill. App. LEXIS 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcnaught-v-davis-illappct-1923.