Morrison v. Illinois Central Railroad

161 N.W. 1032, 101 Neb. 49, 1917 Neb. LEXIS 46
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 16, 1917
DocketNo. 19145
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 161 N.W. 1032 (Morrison v. Illinois Central Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morrison v. Illinois Central Railroad, 161 N.W. 1032, 101 Neb. 49, 1917 Neb. LEXIS 46 (Neb. 1917).

Opinions

Dean, J.

This action was begun on October 3,1914, in the district court for Holt county by plaintiff against defendant, the Illinois Central Railroad Company, by attachment and garnishment. Plaintiff and defendant are both nonresidents of Nebraska, the former being a citizen of Crawford county, Iowa. The defendant is an Illinois corporation with its home office and principal place of business at Chicago. The suit is for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff on alighting from one of defendant’s coaches at Denison, Iowa, on July 19, 1914, in the course of a trip made by her and her husband and minor child on that date from Dow City to Denison, distant ten miles. Plaintiff sued to recover $15,100. The jury awarded her a ver- ■ [50]*50diet of |7.500. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company and the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company were made garnishees. Both of the garnishees answered, disclosing that they each were severally indebted to defendant in sums respectively in excess of the amount sued for, but they each contend the indebtedness grew out of interstate shipments, and that by the terms of their respective contracts with defendant the debts arising therefrom are severally payable only at Chicago. The court overruled the objections and ordered the garnishees to pay to plaintiff a sufficient amount of money to discharge such sum as plaintiff might recover in .the action with attendant costs. The defendant appealed.

Plaintiff in her petition alleged, in substance, that her injuries were brought about because defendant’s employees kept the steps of the coach in which she was transported, “with the metallic parts, nails and wood thereof in a negligent, unsafe and dangerous condition. And by reason of this said condition the plaintiff, while attempting to get off said car and while unaided by the defendant or its servants, tripped, fell and was thrown first backward and then downward to the platform owned and maintained by defendant at said Denison.” She also charges that defendafit’s negligence in the premises is intensified from the fact that she had lost her left hand, which was well known to defendant’s employees, and that upon alighting from the coach she was entitled to more than ordinary care for that reason.

The petition goes on to charge: “By reason of the carelessness and negligence of defendant and its servants in failing to assist her from said car, she fell and was thrown, and the heel of one of her shoes broken- off, and she was first thrown backward and then thrown forward and down and upon a platform of said defendant at said Denison, whereby she sustained the following injuries to wit: Her left foot between the toes and ankle, and in the ankle, were strained and all parts thereof weré crushed, bruised, torn and injured, and she was rendered lame in her left foot and leg. [51]*51Plaintiff’s right hip was crushed, bruised, blackened, torn, and injured, and plaintiff’s right side and her back were crushed, torn, lacerated, bruised, blackened, and injured, and her neck was bruised, injured, made lame, and sore. * * * That by reason of said injuries the plaintiff has ever since sustained and ever will sustain great nervousness, and her nervous system has been permanently injured. * * * That plaintiff sustained all of said injuries without fault or negligence on her part.”

The defendant answered, generally, reserving and not waiving its special appearance, objecting to the jurisdiction of the court, and pleading: “That the plaintiff is a resident and citizen of Crawford county,. Iowa. That the alleged injury complained of * * * is alleged to have occurred at * * * Denison in said Crawford county, Iowa. That the Illinois Central Railroad Company, * * * is a legal corporation * * * of Illinois, having its home office and principal place of business in * * * Chicago.” The answer then alleges that the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company and the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, both garnished in this action, are both of them Illinois corporations with their respective home offices and places of business in Chicago, and that the alleged indebtedness owing by both of the companies respectively to defendant consists of liabilities which accrued outside of Holt county and which are payable in Chicago; that defendant never had any railroad line in Holt county, nor agent, nor representative, nor any property in Holt county subject to attachment, and never at any time material to the issues had any debts owing to it in Holt county. “That the attempted attachment and garnishment * *' * is an unjust and unlawful abuse of the process of this court. That by reason of the fact that the plaintiff and defendant are both nonresidents of * * * Nebraska and there is no cause or legal or just reason shown why this court should take or assume jurisdiction of this case, it is ah unjust abuse of the process and powers of this court in assuming to take and retain jurisdiction of this case and in [52]*52requiring this defendant to answer herein, and this court is not required under the rules of comity to take or retain jurisdiction of this case. That assuming and retaining jurisdiction of this case, and compelling this defendant to answer herein, would, if the same should be retained and prosecuted to judgment, deprive this defendant of its property without due process of law and deny to it the equal protection of the law contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the United States in such cases made and provided.” As to the injuries complained of in the petition, defendant pleads a general denial, and prays that the action be dismissed with its costs. The reply is in the usual form denying every allegation of new matter in the answer.

Section 7746, Rev. St. 1913, as amended in 1911 (Laws 1911, ch. 168) is as follows: “Property and Garnishee Bound by Order. An order of attachment binds the property attached from the time of service, and the garnishee shall stand liable to the plaintiff in attachment for all property, moneys, and credits in his hands, or due from him to defendant, from the time he is served with the written notice mentioned in section one hundred and eighty-two, notwithstanding the money or debt owing by such garnishee, and which is sought to be attached, may be payable at the place of residence of a nonresident defendant; but where the property is attached in the hands of a consignee, his lien thereon shall not be affected by the attachment.”

The 1911 amendment of section 7746 incorporated this language in the body of the act: “Notwithstanding the money or debt owing by such garnishee, and which is sought to be attached, may be payable at the place of residence of a nonresident defendant.”

Our attention has not been called to any construction of this statute made since the amendment. There are many citations not applicable to the present case, but to actions arising thereunder before the amendment.

Each of the garnishees has a line of railroad in Holt county, and an office and agent there, so that service can be made upon them in that county. The* record shows that [53]*53they are indebted to the principal defendant, the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Under section 7746, Rev. St. 1913, such garnishees are “liable to the plaintiff in attachment” for credits in their hands, “notwithstanding the money or debt owing by such garnishee, and which is sought to be attached, may be payable at the place of residence of ' a nonresident defendant.” This gave the court jurisdiction of the garnishees and of their indebtedness to the principal defendant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 N.W. 1032, 101 Neb. 49, 1917 Neb. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morrison-v-illinois-central-railroad-neb-1917.