Menolascino v. Superior Felt & Bedding Co.

40 N.E.2d 813, 313 Ill. App. 557, 1942 Ill. App. LEXIS 1174
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 18, 1942
DocketGen. No. 41,858
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 40 N.E.2d 813 (Menolascino v. Superior Felt & Bedding Co.) 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
Menolascino v. Superior Felt & Bedding Co., 40 N.E.2d 813, 313 Ill. App. 557, 1942 Ill. App. LEXIS 1174 (Ill. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Hebel

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a judgment for $5,000 entered in the superior court of Cook county, on November 20, 1940, in favor of plaintiff and against defendant, Superior Felt and Bedding Company, on a verdict of a jury. The pleadings upon which this action was tried, after some corrections and amendments, appear to have been an original complaint which was filed on November 1, 1935, based on the charge that defendant maintained a public nuisance by operating its mattress factory at 2447 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, in violation of sections 2395 and 3824 of the 1931 City Code, which specially damaged plaintiff’s property, located directly across the street, by reducing its rental value, and also specially damaged the plaintiff by discharging into the air great quantities of lint, dust, fluff, nap, and other dirty and waste substances which rendered the air in the neighborhood unwholesome and unfit to breathe, and that as a result thereof plaintiff’s health was injured in that said substances infected her lungs and sinuses, causing her to spend large sums for medical dare.

On motion of defendant the original complaint was stricken and on December 29, 1936, plaintiff filed an amended complaint making the same charges and the same allegations of injuries and damages as in the original complaint, the only change being that the ordinances were pleaded in haec verba rather than by reference as was done in the original complaint.

This complaint as amended was stricken and on May 9, 1939, on leave of court, plaintiff filed a second amended complaint based on charges of negligently and carelessly operating the mattress factory from November 1, 1933 to November 1, 1935, so as to discharge into the air, in the vicinity, great quantities of lint, dust, fluff, nap and similar substances, which rendered the air unfit to breathe by persons lawfully in the vicinity, including the plaintiff, which defendant knew or should have known; that during said period plaintiff owned and resided upon the premises located at 2454 West Roosevelt Road in the vicinity of defendant ’s factory; that plaintiff was in the exercise of due care and as a proximate result of defendant’s said carelessness and negligence plaintiff’s lungs, sinuses, throat and chest became infected and diseased, and that her injuries are permanent. The damages claimed were for past, present and future pain and suffering, and the expenditure of money for medical care and other treatment, and future payments for such purposes.

Defendant admitted the ownership, management and operation of the building and mattress factory in question, denied all the other allegations, and filed a special plea of the statute of limitations. No replication was filed to this special plea of the statute of limitations. Plaintiff appellee suggests, in answer to the statement in defendant’s brief that “No replication was filed to this special plea of the statute of limitations . . . and consequently the facts set forth are admitted,” that on June 2, 1939, plaintiff filed a motion to strike the answer and pleas to the second amended complaint, which motion to strike directly denied the allegations set up in the answer and pleas theretofore filed by the defendant; that on June 20, 1939, a hearing was had before the court who at that time heard the arguments of counsel with respect to the statute of limitations and entered the following order:

“It Is Ordered that defendant’s Answer and Pleas to Second Amended Complaint be and the same is stricken.
“The defendant, electing to stand upon its said Answer and Pleas to Second Amended Complaint, is hereby adjudged in default, for failure to file a new answer or plead to said Second Amended Complaint, and it is so ordered.
“It Is further ordered that this case be set for hearing upon said Second Amended Complaint on September 21,1939, to determine plaintiff’s damages.”

That subsequently, on September 21, 1939, the previous order striking the defendant’s answer, but not the pleas, was vacated and set aside. The defendant made a motion for a jury trial and the case was set for trial.

When the instant case was first called for trial the court, after reading the authorities, stated that he did not believe that the question of negligence had anything to do with the case and at that time the plaintiff was permitted to amend her complaint by striking out the words “carelessly and negligently” in paragraph two of her complaint. Later an order to that effect was entered by the court as follows: “Leave is given the plaintiff to file his second amended complaint and to amend the same by striking out the words negligently and carelessly in paragraph 2 thereof.” This order was entered during the course of the trial on November 30, 1940. It appears from the record that no action, either in the way of an answer, motion to strike, or objection to the striking out of the words “carelessly and negligently” was taken by the defendant.

From the statement of facts, established by the evidence heard by the court and jury, it appears that defendant operated a large factory at 2447 West Roosevelt Road, engaging in the manufacture and processing of cotton mattresses, pillows, and other products of like nature. Several years after the defendant had set up its factory the plaintiff, Felice Menolascino, and her husband purchased (in 1926) a home across the street. The home was one of a number of homes in a block of buildings which ran from Campbell avenue on the west about one-half block to the east. These buildings had been there for many years. For several years plaintiff lived in the neighborhood and the factory operated its business without any complaint. Plaintiff at that time was in perfect health, had never had anything wrong with her nose, her sinuses, her throat, or her chest. She weighed about 116 pounds and, according to the testimony of a doctor who had taken care of her little girl, was in radiant health. Plaintiff’s bedroom was located in the front of her house directly across the street from the mattress factory. In about 1932 the defendant’s factory began to discharge great quantities of cotton linter, described by witnesses as a grayish white dust. Numerous neighbors testified to the conditions pertaining in the neighborhood between 1933 to 1935 as a result of this great discharge from defendant’s premises.

One witness, Dominick Cherin, who lived next door testified to the frequent and almost daily discharge of this snow-like cotton, saying that it came from a blower, and that when the wind was from the south the stuff “was flying around through the windows into the flats,” and that it was so bad he could not breathe; that the furniture was covered with it, as well as the sidewalks; that frequently defendant’s employees gathered up and swept off the sidewalks; that upon at least ten different occasions he had complained to the defendant of the conditions; that they took sacks of this “stuff” off the roof; that in 1935 or 1936 he started a suit against defendant for damage to his property; that when the cotton was coming from the factory you could not breathe the air; and that, in 1936, after suit had been started, the conditions were alleviated.

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Bluebook (online)
40 N.E.2d 813, 313 Ill. App. 557, 1942 Ill. App. LEXIS 1174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/menolascino-v-superior-felt-bedding-co-illappct-1942.