Smith v. Polukey

160 N.E.2d 508, 22 Ill. App. 2d 238
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 2, 1959
DocketGen. 11,231
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 160 N.E.2d 508 (Smith v. Polukey) 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
Smith v. Polukey, 160 N.E.2d 508, 22 Ill. App. 2d 238 (Ill. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

JUSTICE SOLFISBURU

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a suit for damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff, Beth Smith, while riding as a guest passenger in an automobile owned and operated by the defendant, Polukey, which came into collision with another automobile operated by the defendant, Walker. Plaintiff joined as a party defendant Cotta Pharmacy, Inc., an Illinois corporation, alleging it to be liable to plaintiff as the defendant Walker’s principal or master. The cause was tried before a jury which returned a verdict for the plaintiff against all three defendants in the amount of $30,000. Judgment was entered on the verdict, post-trial motions of the three defendants were denied, and each of the three defendants perfected appeals which are now before this court.

No questions are raised on the pleadings. Defendant Polukey urges that the verdict against him is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence, no proof of wilful and wanton misconduct having been adduced. Defendant Walker contends that the verdict against her is against the manifest weight of the evidence, and in particular that plaintiff’s freedom from contributory negligence was not proved. Mrs. Walker also urges as reversible error the giving of plaintiff’s instructions No. 9 and No. 17. Defendant Cotta Pharmacy, Inc., maintains that not only does the evidence fail to prove defendant Walker guilty of negligence but that no proof of agency was offered.

The evidence offered will be summarized in the following paragraphs. On September 26, 1957, between 7:00 and 7:30 p. m., the defendant Polukey, aged 18, who lived in Durand, Illinois, picked up the plaintiff, a young lady 16 years of age, at her home in Rockford. The purpose of the trip was to pick up a friend in Rockford and drive the friend to nearby Loves Park, Illinois. However, not finding the friend at either his home or his place of employment, defendant Polukey proceeded to drive the plaintiff to her home. While returning enroute to plaintiff’s home, Mr. Polukey drove south on Springfield Avenue, on the westerly edge of Rockford, toward U. S. Highway 20, also known as West State Street. West State Street consisted of four lanes of traffic running in a generally east-west direction. After stopping at the intersection of Springfield Avenue and West State Street, defendant Polukey turned westerly on West State Street and proceeded in a westerly direction a distance of about three blocks to a point where Monroe Street intersects West State Street from the north but does not cross West State Street. The collision occurred at this T intersection of West State Street and Monroe Street.

The area between Springfield Avenue and Monroe Street was an area built up with homes, shops, stores, gas stations, and other business establishments. On the north side of West State Street, it was intersected by three streets from the north, west of Springfield Avenue, being from east to west; Victory, some 500 feet west of Springfield; Woodrow, some 300 feet west of Victory; and Monroe, about 325 feet west of Woodrow. In the vicinity of Monroe, West State Street was illuminated by overhead mercury or sodium vapor lights. At each intersection mentioned there was a “Stop” sign for traffic entering West State Street, and throughout the area in question, West State Street had a posted 40 mile per hour speed limit which was known to the plaintiff, defendant Polukey, and defendant Walker, all of whom were also familiar with the neighborhood.

Miss Smith, the plaintiff, testified that after entering West State Street from Springfield Avenue, the Polukey automobile turned into the inner or passing lane for westbound traffic, and between Springfield Avenue and Victory passed another automobile at wbicb time the Polukey car was going 40 to 50 miles per hour; that the defendant Polukey maintained this speed to Woodrow Street, wbicb was one block east of Monroe Street, at wbicb point bis speed started to increase. Tbe plaintiff further testified that at a point about 200 feet east of Monroe Street she looked at the speedometer of the car in wbicb she was riding, that it was then going 60 to 65 miles per hour and that its speed was still increasing. According to the testimony of the plaintiff, at some point east of Monroe Street, she saw the Walker car stopped at Monroe Street, about five feet north of the north edge of the pavement of West State Street and facing south. Plaintiff testified that she looked away and that when she looked back the Walker vehicle was moving slowly in a generally southerly direction and was a little better than half a car length onto the concrete on West State Street. At that moment, the Polukey car was 200 feet east of Monroe, and the witness remembered nothing further except that she screamed.

In her testimony the plaintiff stated that both cars bad headlights lighted; that she did not bear if any born was sounded by either driver and that she could not remember if the brakes of the Polukey car bad been applied. Tbe testimony of the plaintiff was that during the interval between Springfield Avenue and the point of collision she did not recall saying anything to the driver about driving too fast or passing other vehicles but only that she screamed when the Polukey car was about 200 feet east of Monroe Street and was traveling 60 to 65 miles per hour and still accelerating.

It was about 9:00 p. m., when the Polukey car traveling west on West State Street, struck the Walker car traveling southerly through the intersection. Tbe front end of the Polukey car struck the left side of the Walker car near its front end, and both vehicles were damaged beyond repair.

The impact occurred just north of the double yellow line marking the center of the four-lane highway. As a result of the collision, James Black, a passenger in the Walker car, was killed, defendant Mrs. Walker, and Miss Smith, the plaintiff, were seriously injured, and the defendant Polukey also sustained injuries. Mrs. Walker remained unconscious for four days after the occurrence and suffered a retrograde amnesia, as a result of which she had virtually no recollection of the collision or events leading up to it. The defendant Polukey also testified that he had no recollection whatever from a point 2 to 2% blocks east of the scene of the collision, at which time he testified that he was traveling 40 to 50 miles per hour.

On September 26, 1957, the defendant Walker’s husband was employed as a registered pharmacist by Cotta Pharmacy, Inc., an Illinois corporation, which owned and operated two drug stores in Bockford, one known as the “Main Store” and the other known as the “Monroe Street Store.” The evidence is undisputed that James Black, who was a passenger in the Walker car at the time of the collision, was in charge of the Monroe Street Store of Cotta Pharmacy, Inc., and at the time of the collision had with him the daily receipts from the Monroe Street Store. It is also undisputed that Mrs. Walker, on the evening in question, had at the request of her husband, gone to the Monroe Street Store to pick up Mr. Black, whose custom and practice it was to bring the daily receipts from the Monroe Street Store to the Main Store before closing and to deposit them in the Main Store safe. There was testimony that Mr. Black lived in the same neighborhood as the Walkers and that Mr. Walker had requested his wife to pick up Mr. Black whose car was in the garage, so that he could go home with them.

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Bluebook (online)
160 N.E.2d 508, 22 Ill. App. 2d 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-polukey-illappct-1959.