Rhoden v. Peoria Creamery Co.

278 Ill. App. 452, 1934 Ill. App. LEXIS 45
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 22, 1934
DocketGen. No. 8,750
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 278 Ill. App. 452 (Rhoden v. Peoria Creamery 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
Rhoden v. Peoria Creamery Co., 278 Ill. App. 452, 1934 Ill. App. LEXIS 45 (Ill. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dove

delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant in error, Beulah B. H. Bhoden, recovered a judgment in the circuit court of Peoria county for $20,000 against the Peoria Creamery Company and the Peoria Cartage Company. From that judgment the Peoria Cartage Company has perfected an appeal to this court, and the Peoria Creamery Company has prosecuted this writ of error.

The declaration, as amended, consisted of three counts. In each count it was alleged, among other things, that the defendant in error was riding as the guest of Bichard Vogel in his automobile on June 9, 1930, while he was driving it along State Highway No. 8; that the Peoria Creamery Company and the Peoria Cartage Company were each possessed of and operating a large truck upon said highway, both trucks proceeding in an easterly direction and immediately preceding the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding was the cartage company truck and ahead of it was the truck of the creamery company; that the driver of each of said trucks so negligently, carelessly and recklessly managed and controlled the same that by reason thereof the automobile in which plaintiff was riding struck the truck of the Peoria Cartage Company and as a result thereof defendant in error was seriously injured. The third count also alleged that no warning was given to the driver of the automobile in which plaintiff was' riding and as a result thereof the collision occurred. To this declaration both defendants filed the general issue and the cartage company filed a special plea, denying that it was the owner of the truck and denying that the truck alleged to have been driven by its servants was in the care, custody or control of any agent or servant of the cartage company. Upon these pleas issues were joined and a trial had, resulting* in a verdict and judgment as hereinbefore stated.

The evidence discloses that defendant in error is a physician and surgeon, 40 years of age, a graduate of the University of Nebraska and of the University of Pennsylvania, and was, at the time of the accident, Assistant General Medical Superintendent of Bellevue Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Richard Vogel is 40 years of age, lives at Berwyn, Illinois, and is a cousin of Dr. Rhoden. By previous arrangement, Mr. Vogel and his mother met Dr. Rhoden at Ames, Iowa, on June 8, 1930, drove to Des Moines, Iowa, and from there to Bowen, near Quincy, and the following day, June 9th, left Bowen in Mr. Vogel’s five-passenger Oakland sedan, expecting to spend the night at Ohenoa. They visited relatives and had supper at Eureka, leaving there between 7:30 and 8:00 o’clock. During the entire trip, Richard Vogel drove the car, and Mrs. Vogel and Dr. Rhoden occupied the rear seat, Dr. Rhoden sitting on the left-hand side, immediately behind the driver. After leaving Eureka, the car proceeded east toward El Paso on State Highway No. 8, which is a concrete pavement,18 feet wide divided by a black line in the center and had traveled approximately 10 miles to the point of the collision. Approaching the place where the accident occurred the pavement is straight and level for approximately one mile in each direction. About 7:30 that same evening, a truck of the Peoria Creamery Company being-driven by Eustace Hinderliter was proceeding easterly upon said highway, but due to a broken pin in its timer, stopped upon the east traffic lane of the slab, its north wheels being about two feet south of the black line which marked the center of the pavement. This truck and its contents had a gross weight of 23,350 lbs. As soon as the truck stopped, Hinderliter, who was alone in the truck, went to the residence of Ivan Snow, some 500 feet away, and from there telephoned a mechanic at El Paso, John Sadler, to come out. About 15 minutes thereafter Sadler arrived and suggested that the truck be pulled to El Paso because, in the event the gear on the bottom of the distributor was found to be broken, they would have to get a new one. Upon examination of the distributor, however, Hinderliter, the driver of the truck, and Sadler, the mechanic, decided it could be repaired and went to a repair shop on the north side of the Snow home, leaving the truck unattended standing on the pavement. It was while they were there, engaged in repairing the timer, that the truck driven by Everett Bell, accompanied by John Butkovitz, referred to herein as the Peoria Cartage Company truck, which was also proceeding in an easterly direction, approached the creamery company truck and stopped, or was coming to a stop, between 30 and 50' feet west of the rear end of the Peoria Creamery Company truck. George Troye had passed through El Paso this evening at a little before 8 o’clock, driving alone in his Chevrolet coupe, going toward Eureka. As he approached the point of the collision, Bell and Butkovitz, ill the cartage company truck, observed his approach, and in order to permit him to pass the creamery company truck, the driver of the cartage company truck was obliged to stop, or almost stop his truck, in order that Troye might proceed in his traffic lane on the north side of the black line. About this same time and while Sadler and Hinderliter were at the Snow residence making the repairs on the distributor, Mr. Vogel, driving the car in which Dr. Rhoden was a passenger, approached from the west, going in an easterly direction on the south traffic lane. According to the testimony of Mr. Vogel, he was proceeding on the right-hand side of the pavement up to a point within a few feet of the rear end of the cartage company truck, when, in order to go around that truck, he pulled out to the left and entered the north traffic lane, left of the hlack line. About that time Mr. Vogel observed the Troye car approaching from the east, going in a westerly direction. Mr. Vogel further testified that when he first saw the Troye car, it was close enough to him that he knew if he went ahead his car and the Troye car would collide. Mr. Troye testified that he observed the Vogel car as it turned out into the westbound traffic lane, and he then turned his car over onto the shoulder and into the ditch north of the slab and Vogel swerved his car to the right in an effort to get back into his own traffic lane and thereupon his car struck the left rear corner of the cartage company truck, resulting in Dr. Rhoden being injured, to recover for which this suit was instituted.

Plaintiff in error contends that the evidence fails to disclose that it was guilty of any negligence which was the proximate cause of the injury; that the defendant in error was guilty of contributory negligence; that the doctrine of intervening cause applies and that the trial court erred in its refusal, at the close of all of the evidence, to direct a verdict for plaintiff in error; that the trial court erred in the admission of evidence; that erroneous instructions were given to the jury by the trial court; that prejudicial remarks were made by opposing counsel in their argument to the jury, and finally that the judgment is excessive.

Our statute makes it unlawful for the driver of a vehicle to stop the same on any durable hard-surfaced State highway, or allow it to stand in such position that there is hot ample room for two vehicles to pass upon the road, except in case of emergency. Cahill’s Illinois Revised Statutes, 1933, ch. 121, ¶ 161(2). Plaintiff in error insists that as the undisputed evidence is to the effect that there was a break in the operating machinery of the truck, therefore, an emergency existed as contemplated by the exception.

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Bluebook (online)
278 Ill. App. 452, 1934 Ill. App. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhoden-v-peoria-creamery-co-illappct-1934.