Savoy Hotel Co. v. Industrial Board

116 N.E. 712, 279 Ill. 329
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1917
DocketNo. 11278
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 116 N.E. 712 (Savoy Hotel Co. v. Industrial Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Savoy Hotel Co. v. Industrial Board, 116 N.E. 712, 279 Ill. 329 (Ill. 1917).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Cooke

delivered the opinion of the court:

The Industrial Board of Illinois awarded C. R. Shannon, administrator of the estate of Eugene Warlich, deceased, the sum of $4.04 per week for 415 weeks and $3.40 per week for one week, beginning January 24, 1916, against the Savoy Hotel Company, plaintiff in error, for the death of his intestate, in a proceeding under the Workmen’s Compensation act. The record of the board was filed in the circuit court of Vermilion county as a return to a writ of certiorari, where the decision and award of the board were confirmed. The circuit court has certified that this is a proper case to be reviewed by this court."

Eugene Warlich was a negro porter employed by the plaintiff - in error in the Savoy Hotel, in Danville. Two porters were employed in the operation of the hotel. On Saturday, January 22, 19x6, two men came to the hotel and occupied room No. 306, on the third floor. On the evening of that day these men purchased a dozen bottles of beer and a quart of whisky and had the same sent to their room for their use on the following day. They spent Saturday night in a carousal, coming to their room in the hotel about six o’clock on Sunday morning. They spent Sunday in their room, alternately sleeping and drinking, and were apparently in such a state of intoxication that neither of them could remember definitely what occurred on that day. Warlich was called in the morning to put their liquor on ice to have it cool for them when they wanted it, and he and the colored elevator boy answered various calls to this room during the day. They were given whisky by these men and each of the boys became more or less intoxicated. Plaintiff in error had a rule that one of the porters could get off duty each Sunday afternoon as soon as the work of mopping the rotunda and cleaning the wash-room was done, and under this arrangement the porters took turns in taking this half holiday, and on Sunday, January 23, it was Warlich’s turn to get off duty. After this work was completed it was the privilege of the porter whose turn it was to be relieved from duty to leave the hotel or remain there, as he chose. If he remained at the hotel he was expected to answer any call which the clerk of the hotel might direct him to answer or to do any other work to be done when directed to do so. If he chose not to do this work it was his privilege to refuse and to leave the hotel. The two porters began mopping the rotunda at one o’clock Sunday afternoon. Prior to that time the other porter and the elevator boy had noticed Warlich’s intoxicated condition, and some remarks having been made about it, he stated that he had had enough for that time and was not going to drink any more until he was off duty; that he then intended to go up-stairs and “hit it up again;” that he would be off duty then and it was nobody’s business if he went home drunk. The mopping was finished about half-past one o’clock. Warlich then went to the wash-room, where the work necessary to be done would occupy him but a short time. Shortly after two o’clock,—about 2:15 o’clock,.as near as the time can be fixed,—the elevator boy saw him come out of the wash-room, and that was the last time any of the witnesses saw him alive.

The Savoy Hotel is a four-story building, facing south on Main street, with an alley running north and south along the west side of the building. On the first floor, along the alley, is a baggage room, with a door leading into the alley, through which baggage is unloaded into and loaded from the baggage room. In the baggage room is a freight elevator, used only for carrying baggage and other freight to the various floors of the hotel. On each of the floors above the first floor the door opening into the freight elevator shaft is on the same side of the shaft as the opening into the elevator in the baggage room, and these doors were substantially the same on each floor. They consisted of two wooden doors swinging on hinges,—one door, when closed, being fastened by a spring-bolt going into the floor and the other door latching into it. At each of these doors there extended across the shaft, about three and one-half feet above the floor, a bar two inches thick and six or eight inches wide, which was removed when the doors were to be opened an'd replaced after they were closed. • After Warlich was last seen on that afternoon the freight elevator was used but once. At three o’clock the porter who remained on duty was directed by the clerk of the hotel to take some baggage to the third and fourth floors. He went to the baggage room and found'that the freight elevator was standing empty at the third floor. He brought the elevator down to the baggage room floor by pulling the cable, and took the baggage, as he was directed, to the third and fourth floors. When he returned he closed and fastened the doors and put up the bars on both the third and fourth floors. About five o’clock Warlich was found dead in the freight elevator. He was in a sitting position in one corner of the elevator, with his legs lying across a small two-handled truck which was used for handling baggage. An examination disclosed that his neck was broken and he had suffered a cut on the jaw and an abrasion on the right leg below the knee. There was a small pool of blood beside him, and there were some blood-stains on his clothing from the abrasion below his knee. He had apparently been dead from two to four hours. While on duty the porters at the hotel wore blue blouses or jumpers with the initials “S. H.” on them. When Warlich was found dead he still had this blouse on.

There is no direct evidence as to how Warlich came to his death. The men who occupied room 306 testified that they had telephoned about half-past two o’clock in the afternoon for a boy to come and remove the empty bottles from their room, and'one of them thought Warlich was the porter who responded to the call and removed the bottles. The clerk testified that there had been no such call made, and it was conclusively shown that the bottles had not been removed from the room that day but were removed by other employees Monday morning. The freight elevator was six feet in length north and south and five feet in width. Two large iron bars extended across the top of the elevator from the north to the south. Fastened to the center of these bars is the hoisting cable, and from the outer edge of one beam to the outer edge of the other is about two feet, thus leaving a space of less than two feet between the outer edge of each beam and the side of the elevator. These beams were covered with grease and dust. A careful examination after the finding of Warlich’s body disclosed that there were no marks of any kind upon these beams or upon the sides of the elevator shaft. It is-the theory of defendants in ■error that Warlich, after finishing his work in the washroom and while still on duty, went to room 306, using the freight elevator, which he left standing at the third floor; that after he had spent some time in this room .he attempted to return to the first floor in the freight elevator; that he either stepped into the shaft thinking the elevator was still there and fell, or having' discovered that the elevator was not there fell into the shaft while reaching for the cable to bring t-he elevator back up to the third floor.

Certain ordinances of the city of Danville were introduced in evidence regulating the construction and management of passenger elevators and the construction of freight elevators and elevator shafts in all buildings of a certain height.

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Bluebook (online)
116 N.E. 712, 279 Ill. 329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savoy-hotel-co-v-industrial-board-ill-1917.