Onyschuk v. A. Vincent Sons Co.

277 Ill. App. 414
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 27, 1934
DocketGen. No. 37,391
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 277 Ill. App. 414 (Onyschuk v. A. Vincent Sons 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
Onyschuk v. A. Vincent Sons Co., 277 Ill. App. 414 (Ill. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Gridlet

delivered the opinion of the court.

On May 20, 1932, the Union Bank of Chicago, as administrator of the estate of Mary Onysehuk, deceased, commenced an action against the four defendants to recover damages for negligently causing the death of the intestate as the result of an automobile collision, which occurred in Chicago about 1:30 o’clock in the afternoon of August 6, 1931. Each defendant separately pleaded to the declaration. Several months prior to the trial, by stipulation between plaintiff and A. Vincent Sons Co. (hereinafter called the Garage Co.), it was ordered that the suit be dismissed as to it. During the trial before a jury in October, 1933, Harry Onysehuk, having become the administrator of the intestate’s estate in place of the bank, was substituted as plaintiff in the action, and on his motion, and at the conclusion of plaintiff’s evidence, the suit also was dismissed as to Joseph Dykton, father of Joseph Dykton, Jr., and owner of one of the automobiles involved in the collision, and the trial proceeded as to the two remaining defendants, J. K. Sharkey and Joseph Dykton, Jr. The jury returned a verdict finding both of them guilty and assessing plaintiff’s damages at the sum of $2,500. On November 4, 1933, after overruling Sharkey’s motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the court entered judgment upon the verdict against both of the defendants. Sharkey alone has perfected an appeal from the judgment.

The declaration consisted of four counts. In the first count it is alleged in substance:

That on August 6, 1931, plaintiff’s intestate, a girl of the age of 11 years, was standing with others on the west sidewalk of South State street ( a north and south street) and south of its intersection with 111th street (an east and west street); that Joseph Dykton, by his agent or servant, Joseph Dykton, Jr., was then and there operating an automobile (hereinafter called the Nash car) westerly upon 111th street and in the intersection; that the Garage Co. and J. K. Sharkey, “by their agent or servant” (Donald Brunette), were then and there operating another automobile (hereinafter called the Packard car) in a southerly direction on South State street and in the intersection; and that while the intestate, exercising due care for her own safety, was standing on the sidewalk, defendants so negligently operated the two automobiles that the Nash car ran into and collided with the Packard car with such force that the Packard car struck the intestate on the sidewalk, knocked her down and so severely injured her that she died on the same day. And plaintiff further averred that the intestate left her surviving Harry Onyschuk, her father, and Michael Onyschuk, her brother, who are her only heirs-at-law and next of kin, and who are still living, etc.

The other counts contained similar allegations. In the second the particular negligence charged is the negligent operation of both cars “at a rate of speed greater than was reasonable and safe through Chicago, an incorporated city in Illinois, contrary to the statute, ’ ’ etc. In the fourth count the gist is the wilful and wanton negligence in the operation of both cars.

To the declaration, in addition to filing pleas of the general issue, the Garage Co., Sharkey and Joseph Dykton, Sr., filed separate special pleas. The Garage Co. denied that it, or any agent or servant of it, owned, operated, possessed or controlled the Packard car at the time and place. Sharkey denied either he, or any agent or servant of his, then operated or controlled the Packard car. Joseph Dykton, Sr., denied that he, or any agent or servant of his, was then in the control, use or possession of the Nash car. The only plea of Joseph Dykton, Jr., was that of the general issue.

On the trial it appeared that neither of the owners of the cars, Sharkey and Joseph Dykton, Sr., was in them at the time. Plaintiff called two witnesses as to the details of the accident, Cornelius Von Baardwik and Fred Henriksen, and they testified at considerable length on direct and cross-examination. Sharkey took the position that the driver of his car, Brunette, was not then his agent or servant, but was the agent or servant of the Garage Co., which was then the bailee of the car for the purpose of greasing it and making-repairs upon it. Plaintiff took the position in substance that while shortly prior to the accident Sharkey had personally brought his Packard car to the shop of the Garage Co. on 115th street, Chicago, for the purpose mentioned, he then requested as a favor that some employee of the Garage Co. drive him in the car to his nearby home, leave him there, and return to the shop with the car; that the foreman of the shop acceded to the request and assigned Brunette (an employee of the Garage Co.) to the act of driving Sharkey to his home, etc.; that the car left the shop, with Sharkey in it and Brunette driving it; that on the way to Sharkey’s home, at his direction, Brunette stopped the car at a barber shop in the vicinity and Sharkey got out of the car and told Brunette to drive it back to the shop, which he attempted to do; that on the return trip the accident happened; that the Garage Co. had temporarily loaned Brunette to Sharkey to act as his chauffeur ; and that, hence, at the time of the accident, the Packard car was being operated by Sharkey’s servant. In support of plaintiff’s position his witness, Von Baardwik, testified in part as follows:

“The police took my name at the time of the accident. ... I saw Sharkey in the Criminal Court and had a conversation with him shortly after the accident. We were talking together, four or five of us, while we were waiting there. And he was telling us that ‘he took his Packard car down to Vincent’s Garage to have it repaired, that he went to the foreman and ashed him if he could get somebody to tahe him home, that on the way home he asked the driver if he could stop at the barber shop, that he went into- the barber shop, saying, “You can go back,” and that the driver went back with the car’; and that is all I hear about it.”

While plaintiff was on the stand, and after he had testified as to the heirs and next of kin of the intestate, etc., he was asked if the Garage Co. had not been one of the defendants originally sued. Upon his replying that he “didn’t understand,” he was further asked: “Have you received some money in settlement already on account of this accident?” After the objection of plaintiff’s attorney to the question had been overruled, the judge and counsel had some conversation not in the jury’s presence and immediately thereafter before the jury respective counsel entered into the following stipulation:

“It is stipulated, gentlemen, in order to save asking the witness the question, because he might or might not understand it fully, that the plaintiff in this case has already received, on account of this lawsuit, in so far as it was against A. Vincent Sons Co., garage owners, the sum of $1200.”

At the close of plaintiff’s evidence Sharkey moved for a directed verdict in his favor, but the motion was denied. Thereupon Sharkey called as witnesses John Carleton and Peter Cook (eyewitnesses to the accident) ; Lewis L. Mills (a shorthand reporter); and Brunette (the driver of the Packard car.) Sharkey also testified in his own behalf. The other remaining defendant, Joseph Dykton, Jr., testified in his own behalf. No other witness was called by him.

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277 Ill. App. 414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/onyschuk-v-a-vincent-sons-co-illappct-1934.