Reed v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

220 Ill. App. 6, 1920 Ill. App. LEXIS 196
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 27, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 220 Ill. App. 6 (Reed v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway 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
Reed v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co., 220 Ill. App. 6, 1920 Ill. App. LEXIS 196 (Ill. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Eldredge

delivered the opinion of the court.

In this case the trial court overruled plaintiff’s demurrer to defendant’s additional pleas and sustained defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s special replication and the plaintiff, having abided by its demurrer to said additional pleas and by its special replication, a judgment of nil elicit was entered. There is no technical objection to the pleas or the replication and it is conceded by both parties- that the sole question to be considered on this appeal is one of law, whether, under the facts pleaded, plaintiff has a cause of action.

The declaration consists of four counts, all of which, so far as the questions here involved are concerned, are substantially the same, the variation between them being only as to the form of negligence charged, in regard to which no question is raised. It is averred in the first count that plaintiff, on the 29th day of June, 1917, in the City of Pana, was employed in removing gravel from a certain railroad car for his employer, Sell & Kolar, of said city to whom the said gravel had been shipped, which car was then standing on a railroad switch track owned and possessed by the defendant and which connected with the main track which ran in an easterly and westerly direction and extended from the State of Indiana and into the State of Illinois and through the corporate limits of the City of Pana; that defendant was possessed of a certain locomotive with a certain train of cars attached thereto, which were under the care and management of the servants of defendant who were then and there driving the same upon and along the said railroad track and switch track and were then and there engaged in interstate commerce, to wit, the carriage of goods and chattels from the State of Indiana into the State of Illinois as a common carrier for hire; that plaintiff, in the exercise of due care, was then and there so employed in the car first aforesaid, which fact the defendant then and there well knew, or by the exercise of reasonable care could have known, and it became and was the duty of defendant not to remove said car except in a prudent and careful manner so as not to injure the plaintiff, yet the defendant, not regarding its duty in that behalf, did then and there couple aforesaid engine and cars with the said car in which the plaintiff was working so carelessly and negligently and without due regard for the said plaintiff, that, through the negligence of the defendant, the car in which the plaintiff was working was made to and did crash into a certain other of the aforesaid cars and by reason whereof the plaintiff was thrown with great force upon the floor of the car first aforesaid and was thereby injured.

The first special plea filed by the defendant, and commonly referred to as defendant’s second plea, avers, in substance, that plaintiff ought not to have or maintain his action because the firm of Sell & Kolar, by whom plaintiff was employed at the time of his injury, was a general contractor of the City of Pana doing local improvement work, excavating, putting in foundations of buildings, constructing brick and concrete buildings, and doing a general teaming and hauling business in said city; that plaintiff, at the time of his injury, was engaged in the usual course of the business of said firm as its servant and was then and there engaged in unloading gravel from a certain railroad car on defendant’s said line of railroad, and that said injury to the plaintiff was an accidental injury sustained by him, arising out of and in the course of his employment; that Sell & Kolar and plaintiff had each elected to be bound by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of this State; and that the defendant railway company had also elected to he bound by the provisions of said act.

To this special plea the plaintiff filed a special replication to the effect'that at the time the plaintiff was injured, the servants of the defendant company were engaged in interstate commerce, to wit, the carriage of goods from the State of Indiana into and through the State of Illinois. A demurrer to this replication was sustained by the trial court and plaintiff abided by its replication.

The defendant also filed two additional pleas which are substantially the same and in which it is averred, in addition to the facts set forth in the special plea mentioned, that the plaintiff, pursuant to the Workmen’s Compensation Act, filed with the Industrial Board his petition for compensation for the injuries mentioned in the declaration, against his employers, Sell & Kolar, that an award of compensation was made in favor of him for the said injuries, which award remains in full force and effect. The award itself is set out in hæc verba. The plaintiff filed his demurrer to these additional pleas which was overruled and he abided thereby.

It is conceded by appellant that if the servants of appellee had been engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the alleged injury, the plaintiff, by reason of section 29 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act [Callaghan’s 1916 Stat. ¶ 5475(29)] would have no cause of action against the defendant, but it is contended that as the servants of the defendant were, at the time their negligent acts caused the injury, engaged in interstate commerce, the defendant was not then operating under the Workmen’s Compensation Act but was bound by the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, which superseded the State law.

As the injury occurred on June 29, 1917, the rights of the parties must be governed by the Workmen’s Compensation Act as it existed on that date, which would be by the Act in force July 1,1914 (Hurd’s Rev. St. 1916, ch. 48, Callaghan’s 1916 Stat. ¶ 5475[1] et seq.). The sections of this act necessary to be considered are as follows:

“1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Hlinois, represented in the General Assembly: That any employer in this State may elect to provide and pay compensation for accidental injuries sustained by any employee arising out of and in the course of the employment according to the provisions of this act, and thereby relieve himself from any liability for the recovery of damages, except as herein provided.” * * *

“ (b) Every employer within the provisions of this act who has elected to provide and pay compensation according to the provisions of this act shall be bound thereby as to all his employees covered by this act until January 1st of the next succeeding year and for terms of each year thereafter.”

“6. No common law or statutory right to recover damages for injury or death sustained by any employee while engaged in the line of his duty as such employee other than the compensation herein provided shall be available to any employee who is covered by the provisions of this act, to any one wholly or-partially dependent upon him, the legal representatives of his estate, or any one otherwise entitled to recover damages for such injury.”

“29. Where an injury or death for which compensation is payable by the employer under this act was not proximately caused by the negligence.

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Related

McNaught v. Davis
229 Ill. App. 253 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
220 Ill. App. 6, 1920 Ill. App. LEXIS 196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-cleveland-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-illappct-1920.