Thompson v. Otis

2 N.E.2d 370, 285 Ill. App. 523, 1936 Ill. App. LEXIS 562
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 26, 1936
DocketGen. No. 38,439
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2 N.E.2d 370 (Thompson v. Otis) 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
Thompson v. Otis, 2 N.E.2d 370, 285 Ill. App. 523, 1936 Ill. App. LEXIS 562 (Ill. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

Mr. Justice John J. Sullivan

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal by plaintiff, Glenn Thompson, from a judgment for costs entered against him June 15j 1935, in favor of Edward E. Kleinschmidt, one of three defendants to an action brought by plaintiff to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him.

Plaintiff filed his suit July 20, 1933, under the former Practice Act, which was in effect prior to January 1, 1934, making Kleinschmidt, Florence Otis and Webber Cartage Line, Inc., a corporation, defendants. Each of the two counts of the original declaration filed August 24, 1933, alleged that plaintiff was injured March 24, 1933, while riding as a guest in an automobile driven by Kleinschmidt when it collided with another automobile operated by defendant Florence Otis and with a truck operated by defendant Webber Cartage Line, and charged that defendants Otis and Webber Cartage Line were guilty of negligence and that Kleinschmidt was guilty of wilful and wanton conduct.

To both counts of the declaration Kleinschmidt filed a general and special demurrer, the latter averring inter alia that a charge of wilful and wanton conduct against Kleinschmidt could not properly be joined in the same count with a charge of negligence against the other two defendants. Although it does not appear in the record, the parties to this controversy agree in their briefs that at the conclusion of the argument on the demurrer the trial judge indicated that he would sustain same. Thereupon, on November 8, 1933, before any order was entered on the demurrer, on plaintiff’s motion the cause was dismissed as to the defendant Kleinschmidt and leave was granted to plaintiff to file an amended declaration.

Such amended declaration was filed November 14, 1933, and consisted of four counts, the first three of which charged negligence against each of the remaining defendants and the fourth count charged them each with wilful and wanton conduct. Pleas were thereafter filed by the defendants Otis and Webber Cartage Line, and the case was at issue.

On March 21, 1935, before the statute of limitations had run against plaintiff’s claim, and after due notice to defendants Otis and Webber Cartage Line, the following order was entered by the trial court:

“On motion of Grlenn Thompson, plaintiff in the above entitled cause, it is hereby ordered:

“(1) That Edward E. Kleinschmidt be and he is hereby made an additional party defendant in the above entitled cause.

“ (2) That summons issue directed to said defendant returnable to the first Monday in April, 1935.

“(3) That the trial of this cause and the pleadings filed herein proceed in conformity to the provisions of the new Civil Practice Act. -

“ (4) That plaintiff be given leave to file his Second Amended Complaint instanter.

“(5) That the defendants, Florence Otis and Webber Cartage Line, Inc., a Corporation, be ordered to file their respective answers.or motions to strike said amended complaint within a period of ten (10) days from- this date.”

On the same day and pursuant to the above order, plaintiff filed his second amended complaint naming Florence Otis, Webber Cartage Line and Kleinschmidt as defendants, and charging Florence Otis with five acts of negligence and also with wilful and wanton conduct, Webber Cartage Line with four acts of negligence and Kleinschmidt with four acts of wilful and wanton conduct.

Summons was issued to Kleinschmidt as directed by the order of March 21, 1935, and was personally served upon him.

Defendants Otis and Webber Cartage Line answered the second amended complaint, and on April 8, 1935, Kleinschmidt filed a special and limited appearance “for the sole purpose of contesting the jurisdiction of the court over my person.” April 13, 1935, Kleinschmidt filed a verified motion to dismiss the cause as to him on the ground that “the court does not have jurisdiction of the person of said defendant.” His affidavit filed in support of this motion stated the facts as hereinbefore set forth, including the fact that on November 8, 1933, “the court allowed said plaintiff to take a voluntary nonsuit as to affiant; that the order entered in said cause allowing plaintiff to take a voluntary nonsuit did not give leave to the plaintiff to move to set aside.” After several hearings Kleinschmidt’s motion was sustained June 15, 1935, and the cause dismissed as to him. It is from this order and judgment that plaintiff appeals.

Plaintiff contends that his voluntary dismissal of defendant Kleinschmidt (hereinafter for convenience referred to as the defendant) was not a bar to a subsequent suit by him against the defendant, and that it is immaterial whether such subsequent suit was a separate new suit filed against Kleinschmidt alone or whether he was made an additional party defendant in the same action from which he had been theretofore dismissed.

The defendant contends that after he had once been voluntarily dismissed from the case by plaintiff, the court lost all jurisdiction over him in that action and that the procedure followed by the plaintiff was not the commencement of a new suit.

It is conceded that-plaintiff “had the unqualified right to dismiss Kleinschmidt from the suit” as he did and that after such dismissal he had the further right to file a new suit against him on the same cause of action at any time before the statute of limitations had barred his claim. .

Did the procedure followed by plaintiff pursuant to the trial court’s order of March -4, 1935, in making Kleinschmidt an additional party defendant in the pending cause, in procuring summons to issue and having it personally served upon him and in filing his second amended complaint as to the two defendants who remained in the ease, as well as to Kleinschmidt, constitute or was it in effect the commencement of a new suit as to Kleinschmidt?

Where a party takes a voluntary nonsuit against the sole defendant or against all of the defendants in a cause and thereby extinguishes the entire case, the well established rule in this State is as set forth in Weisguth v. Supreme Tribe Ben Hur, 272 Ill. 541, where the court said (p. 543):

“In case of a voluntary nonsuit upon motion of a plaintiff the court has no power to set aside the order of dismissal and reinstate the cause unless at the time the nonsuit is taken leave is given the plaintiff to move to set it aside. (Barnes v. Barber, 1 Gilm. 401; Lombard v. Cheever, 3 id. 469.) The reason for this rule is apparent. If a plaintiff by his deliberate and voluntary act secures the dismissal of his suit he must be held to have anticipated the effect and necessary results of this action and should not be restored to the position and the rights which he voluntarily abandoned. Having taken a nonsuit, his only recourse is to begin his action anew.”

The instant case was not nonsuited but still survived and was pending, only one of the defendants having been voluntarily dismissed from it by plaintiff, and it might well be said that as to Kleinschmidt the action stood upon the same footing it would have occupied had he not been made a party in the first instance.

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Bluebook (online)
2 N.E.2d 370, 285 Ill. App. 523, 1936 Ill. App. LEXIS 562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thompson-v-otis-illappct-1936.