Redding v. Schroeder

203 N.E.2d 616, 54 Ill. App. 2d 306, 1964 Ill. App. LEXIS 1061
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 14, 1964
DocketGen. 49,511
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 203 N.E.2d 616 (Redding v. Schroeder) 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
Redding v. Schroeder, 203 N.E.2d 616, 54 Ill. App. 2d 306, 1964 Ill. App. LEXIS 1061 (Ill. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

MR. PRESIDING JUSTICE MURPHY

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff appeals from a not guilty verdict and judgment entered in Ms personal injury action and seeks a new trial because of asserted prejudicial trial errors.

On April 27, 1961, at about 2:30 in tbe afternoon, while standing or walking on or immediately adjacent to Willow Road, an undivided two-lane highway, several hundred feet west of the intersection of Waukegan Road, plaintiff, Roscoe Redding, was struck and severely injured by an automobile driven by defendant, Leo Sehroeder. There were three occurrence witnesses—the plaintiff, who testified that he was standing at the edge of the road when struck, the defendant, and a disinterested bystander, both of whom in substance testified that plaintiff walked into the side of the defendant’s car.

Plaintiff testified that he was driving a tractor west on Willow Road, on the paved part of the highway, when he noticed a tractor driven by Peter Reh coming east on Willow Road. Reh waved, and plaintiff pulled off on the right shoulder and parked his tractor four to six feet from the paved part of the highway. The tractors were stopped almost directly across the road from each other. As plaintiff walked from behind the rear wheels of his tractor toward the road, he looked east and saw a car travelling west and going about 30 miles an hour. “I walked up to the edge of the road and put my left foot on the edge of the road, the drain, and stood there and watched it”—the approaching car. At that time Peter Reh was on the south side of the road, “yelling at me but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.” When the car, which was headed west, “got to about fifteen or twenty feet of me ... it swerved over towards me and he whipped the back towards the center line and the car hit me about where the antenna was.” He heard no horn sound or screech of brakes, and later regained consciousness in the hospital.

On cross-examination plaintiff testified, “ ... As I stood on the side of the road I continued to watch his car. ... I did not see it accelerate any faster than 30 MPH and it was on the North half of the road for westbound traffic. He was in his proper right-hand lane. He never got off the edge of the road onto the shoulder that I saw and his four wheels were always in the same westbound lane of Willow Road. I could see the man driving the car but could not see if his appearance was normal. I was watching the car. ... I stood still with the left foot on the road and the right foot on the shoulder until the accident happened. I just stayed there stationary. . . . I was looking straight East with the left foot on the pavement. . . . The point of impact was with my left leg.”

Defendant Schroeder, called under section 60 of the Civil Practice Act, testified he was travelling west in the north half or westbound lane of Willow Road, at under 30 miles per hour. There were no cars ahead of him going west, “but there were three cars coming from the east.” Defendant saw two tractors standing on opposite shoulders of the road when he was 150 to 200 feet east of them. Peter Reh was on the seat of the tractor on the south shoulder, and plaintiff was standing on the north shoulder, facing south and west on an angle, talking across the road to Peter Reh. Defendant did not see plaintiff move from this position until impact, and he never altered the path of his automobile, nor crossed the center lane, nor went onto the shoulder before the impact, nor applied his brakes prior to the impact. “As I proceeded west my vehicle and the pedestrian came into contact with each other. The right fender of my car met with Mr. Redding’s body approximately four feet in back of the bumper on the right side of my car.” Defendant applied his brakes simultaneously with the impact, the car stopped 25 to 30 feet beyond, defendant got out of his car, and saw plaintiff lying-on the north shoulder about three feet off the road.

The other tractor driver, Peter Reh, the only disinterested eyewitness, testified on behalf of defendant. He said that on the day of the occurrence, his tractor and plaintiff’s were travelling in opposite directions on opposite sides of "Willow Road; that he stopped his tractor 20 to 30 feet west of plaintiff’s; that plaintiff stepped down off his tractor, turned and began to walk in a southerly" direction to the edge of the highway; that Reh never saw plaintiff turn or look toward the east, the direction from which defendant’s car was approaching, although Reh himself saw the approach of defendant’s car at a constant speed of 35 miles per hour. Reh further testified that plaintiff walked into the right front fender of the car, the impact throwing him onto the shoulder of the road. During this entire time, plaintiff was within view of Reh.

On cross-examination, Reh stated visibility was good and the road was straight. When plaintiff alighted from the tractor, defendant’s car was 150 feet away. Reh watched plaintiff—“Redding had his head down looking at the ground. I saw him walk toward me and I knew the car was coming. ... I did not have time to yell.”

Still under cross-examination, Reh was questioned as to whether plaintiff was on the paved part of the highway or on the shoulder at the time of the occurrence, and he replied, “Paved.” He was then questioned about his evidence deposition of August 3, 1962. To one of the deposition questions as to “how far he was onto the road when the accident happened,” Reh answered, “I would say two steps, step-and-a-half.”

Reh was then further cross-examined as to whether defendant’s automobile altered its course “from the time it was 150 feet away from Mr. Redding until the time it stopped,” and he answered, “The only time it altered [its course] was when it drove on the shoulder after he hit . . . .” He was again questioned about an answer which he did not recall giving in his evidence deposition as to what the car did immediately prior to the occurrence. He was also questioned about a written statement, dated May 3, 1961, and signed by him.

On redirect, and over plaintiff’s objection, defendant’s counsel then proceeded to read the whole of the Reh statement of May 3, 1961, into the record, and it included, “I saw a dark green sedan also coming west on Willow Road at about 30 to 35 m.p.h. I started to holler at Mr. Redding as I saw that Mr. Redding was looking at me and obviously did not see the car. He walked about two steps out into the road just as the car was passing, and the car swerved to the left to try to avoid him. Mr. Redding just walked into the right front side of the car about the middle of the right front fender. . . . Mr. Redding was trying to get up. He was not unconscious at any time. He said his leg hurt. I told him to lay where he was.”

Still on redirect, he was further questioned as to the answers given by him in his evidence deposition of August 3, 1962, as to the location of plaintiff at the time of the impact. Reh was then excused, left the courtroom, and was never recalled. On the following day, the jury was reassembled, and just prior to closing arguments, defendant was permitted to read into evidence certain questions and answers taken from the evidence deposition of the witness Reh.

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Bluebook (online)
203 N.E.2d 616, 54 Ill. App. 2d 306, 1964 Ill. App. LEXIS 1061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/redding-v-schroeder-illappct-1964.