Paulsen v. Cochfield

278 Ill. App. 596, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 318
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 10, 1935
DocketGen. No. 8,847
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 278 Ill. App. 596 (Paulsen v. Cochfield) 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
Paulsen v. Cochfield, 278 Ill. App. 596, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 318 (Ill. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Wolfe

delivered the opinion of the court.

On November 20, 1930, the plaintiff as administratrix of the estate of William Paulsen, her late husband, secured a verdict against the defendant for $9,000, in an action wherein the declaration charges that the decedent was killed as a result of the negligence of the driver of the defendant’s automobile in which the decedent was riding as a passenger. A motion for a new trial was made on December 15, 1930, but owing to the illness and subsequent death of the Honorable C. J. Searle, the judge who presided at the trial, the motion was not disposed of until December 30, 1933, when the Honorable Leonard E. Telleen, circuit judge, overruled the motion. Thereupon the defendant made a motion in arrest of the judgment, which was overruled, and judgment was rendered on the verdict. The case appears here on appeal by the defendant to the October Term, 1934, of this court.

Eight assignments of error are urged by the defendant. It is first contended that the court erred in overruling her motion for a directed verdict in her favor made at the close of all' the evidence in the case. This contention is based on the defendant’s insistence that the plaintiff has not proved that the automobile was being driven by the agent of the defendant as alleged in the declaration,- at the time of the accident. This was one of the material allegations of the declaration, denied by appropriate pleas, and the burden was on the plaintiff to prove the alleged fact by legal evidence. It must appear- from all the evidence in the case that the said- allegation has been established by competent evidence. In a jury trial, the motion to direct a verdict raises only a question of law respecting the legal sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a verdict against the party making the motion. In the event of an adverse ruling on the motion to direct a verdict, an exception preserves the question of law for the consideration of an appellate tribunal. The submission of a question of fact to the jury does not waive the question of law already passed upon by the court where the rights of the party have been properly preserved. John Deere Plow Co. v. Carmer, 350 Ill. 104. Neither the trial court nor the court of review weighs the evidence on motion for a directed verdict. Post v. Hightower, 262 Ill. App. 368; Nelson v. Stutz Chicago Factory Branch, 341 Ill. 387.

Although the evidence at the close of the plaintiff’s case, including all reasonable inferences from it favorable to the plaintiff, does not justify an instruction for a verdict in favor of the defendant, still, if the defendant introduces uncontradicted evidence of facts, consistent with every fact which the evidence of the plaintiff tends to prove, but showing affirmatively a complete defense, the motion for a directed verdict made at the close of all of the evidence in the case should be allowed. Nelson v. Stutz Chicago Factory Branch, supra. In this case the question of law on the motion is: Did the defendant introduce uncontradicted evidence showing a complete affirmative defense as stated in the rule above announced! The burden of proof was not shifted to the defendant to prove that the driver of the automobile was not her agent at the time of the accident.

It is conceded by the defendant that William Paul-sen was killed as a result of a collision of the defendant’s automobile while he was riding therein. There is evidence in the record tending to prove that the driver of the defendant’s automobile was guilty of negligence as charged in the. declaration which was the proximate cause of the decedent’s death. The defendant does not urge that the motion to direct a verdict in her favor was erroneously overruled on the ground that there is no such evidence in the record. However, it is not amiss to state that the deceased, on January 21, 1930, was riding in the defendant’s automobile which was being driven on the Lincoln Highway toward the east when the collision occurred about six miles west of Geneva, Illinois, at about 3:30 o’clock in the afternoon. The car was occupied by the defendantj her brother, C. W. Laubscher, and the decedent. The occupants of the car had left Bock Island during the morning of that day and they had been riding in the car on the Lincoln Highway from Morrison, Illinois, to the place of the collision. Whether the car was being driven by the agent of the defendant is a matter of serious dispute between the parties to the action, as is above stated. The highway was paved and it was covered with smooth ice which was very slippery. It is not contended that the driver of the automobile did not control and drive the car with due care during the trip except shortly before the accident. The collision occurred near the top of a hill. As the car was being driven up the hill, the driver thereof attempted to pass a farm wagon which was being pulled up the hill by a team of horses driven by one Wilbur Mangerson. The wagon was on the south side of the highway well over to the right side of the road. A Chevrolet automobile driven toward the west appeared over the brow of the hill just after the driver of the defendant’s car turned that car toward the north to pass or avoid striking the wagon. The evidence tends to prove that the endeavors of the driver of the defendant’s car to prevent a collision with the Chevrolet car caused the defendant’s car to skid against the wagon and then to collide with the Chevrolet car. The impact of the automobiles threw the decedent out of the defendant’s car and upon the highway. The Chevrolet immediately caught fire and the decedent was fatally burned by the gasoline which became ignited as a result of the collision.

The declaration consists of six counts, all of which except -the third allege that the car of the defendant at the time of the collision was being driven by the agent of the defendant. The third count alleges that the car was then being driven by the defendant. The plaintiff, as part of her case in chief, did not introduce testimony that the defendant was driving the car when the accident occurred. No witness testified that the defendant was then driving the car. The case was tried and it is now submitted to this court on the theory that the car was being driven at the time of the accident by the agent of the defendant. On the matter of the proof that the driver of the defendant’s car was the agent of the defendant, the plaintiff introduced no evidence, either in chief or on rebuttal, proving such agency, excepting the facts that the defendant was the owner of the car and present therein when the accident happened. As proving that the driver was the agent of the defendant, the plaintiff relies on her uncontradicted and undisputed proof that the defendant was the owner of the car and present therein when the accident occurred.

The plaintiff cites the cases holding that the proof of ownership of an automobile raises a presumption that the automobile when driven is controlled and driven by the agent of the owner of the car. Included in these citations are the cases of Howard v. Amerson, 236 Ill. App. 587; and Kavale v. Morton Salt Co., 242 Ill. App. 205, affirmed 329 Ill. 445. The defendant cites cases from foreign jurisdiction at variance with the rule laid down in the case relied upon by the plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
278 Ill. App. 596, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paulsen-v-cochfield-illappct-1935.