Tindall v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.

200 Ill. App. 556, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 132
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 10, 1916
DocketGen. No. 6,288
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 200 Ill. App. 556 (Tindall v. Chicago & Northwestern 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
Tindall v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co., 200 Ill. App. 556, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 132 (Ill. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dibell

delivered the opinion of the court.

Miss Ida M. Tindall was a passenger in a sleeping car on a Chicago & Northwestern Bailway train from Duluth to Madison, Wisconsin, and claims that she was there improperly caused and permitted to alight from said car in the nighttime in the yards some distance from the station of the railway company at a place insufficiently lighted and in a place to which she was a stranger and without information how to reach the station, and that in seeking to find her way out she stepped into a depression and was severely jarred. She claims that she was carrying a heavy suit case and that the shoulder of the arm with which she was carrying this suit case was injured, and that said injury became permanent and deprived her of the ability to perform the lucrative employment which she then had. She sued the railway company and the Pullman company. She filed several declarations. There was a jury trial. At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence, the jury, by direction of the court, returned a verdict finding the Pullman company not guilty. The case finally went to the jury against the railway company upon an additional count as amended. This count, after suitable allegations charging the operation of the railroad and the relation of carrier and passenger, and the duty of the railway company to its passengers, charged that the company negligently failed to give the plaintiff timely notice of the approach of the train to the station at Madison, and reasonable time to prepare to leave said train and sleeping ear at the station with convenience and safety; that plaintiff was therefore unable to leave said train and car at said station and was compelled to remain in said car until it was moved by the railway company from said station at the place appointed for passengers to alight to another part of the yards in the station grounds and detached from said train; and that defendant “negligently permitted and invited plaintiff to alight from said sleeping car at a place which was dark and insufficiently lighted”; and that by reason thereof and through such negligence of defendant, plaintiff, while in the exercise of due care, “was invited, permitted and directed to, and did, alight in the nighttime and while it was dark from the said sleeping car in the yards of said railway company” at a great distance from the station, and that while plaintiff, who was a stranger to the surrounding conditions, was proceeding with due care and caution by the best apparent route from said car in the nighttime in the darkness, over and through the tracks and yards of the company to the station, carrying her hand baggage, she stumbled and fell- over some obstacle or into some hole or depression, the precise nature of which, on account of the darkness, is to plaintiff unknown, and she was caused to lurch or was thrown and wrenched or jerked with great force, and greatly strained, bruised and hurt, and was permanently injured in her body, arm and nervous system, and suffered great pain, and was prevented from attending to her business and affairs, and lost great gains and profits which she otherwise would have acquired. Plaintiff had a verdict for $7,000. Motions by the railroad company for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were denied. Plaintiff had judgment on the verdict, and the railway company prosecutes this appeal.

At the close of all the evidence appellee, by leave of court, amended the additional count so as to state more definitely than before that the place which the count originally said was dark was also insufficiently lighted. Appellant contends in its brief that at the close of the plaintiff’s evidence, certain things were said by counsel for the respective parties and by the court concerning this additional count and the charges therein which amounted to a contract by appellee that she would not amend said additional count; and that the amendment so permitted at the close of all the evidence was a violation of that agreement, took appellant by surprise and was reversible error. This position is entirely based upon the statements contained in an affidavit of counsel for appellant contained in between seven and eight printed pages of the abstract. There are two reasons why this affidavit cannot be considered, and a third reason why it cannot prevail: (1) This affidavit is not contained in the bill of exceptions. In a common-law record, affidavits on file can only be brought to the attention of a reviewing court by being embodied in a bill of exceptions. The clerk of the court has no authority to insert in that part of the record kept by him any affidavit or other paper on file, excepting the pleadings and the like which are of themselves a part of a common-law record. The fact that the clerk inserts an affidavit or other paper and certifies that it is on file in the case, or that it was filed on a certain date, does not make that affidavit or paper a part of the record which the reviewing court can consider. The rule is the same, to a large extent, in chancery. This has been held in a long line of decisions of which the following are examples: Franey v. True, 26 Ill. 184; Schlump v. Reidersdorf, 28 Ill. 68; Heacock v. Hosmer, 109 Ill. 245; Lange v. Heyer, 195 Ill. 420; DuQuoin Water-Works Co. v. Parks, 207 Ill. 46; Bellinger v. Barnes, 223 Ill. 121; People v. Donaldson, 255 Ill. 19; People v. Taxman, 186 Ill. App. 348. Not only is this affidavit not contained in the bill of exceptions, hut the- bill of exceptions does not show that at the close of the plaintiff’s case or at any other time, any such conversation as is alleged was held between court and the counsel for the respective parties, or that anything was said or done upon the subject of relying upon this additional count as it then stood. The record, therefore, does not present at all the question so elaborately discussed.

(2) If the affidavit had been embodied in the bill of exceptions as a part of the showing made upon the motion for a new trial, it cannot be considered by this court. That which occurred in the presence of the court at the trial cannot be preserved for review by affidavit. What is said and done by the trial judge and what occurs in open court in his presence is within his knowledge and must be recited in a bill of exceptions vouched for by his certificate. If a defeated party could be permitted to make such matters a part of the record by ex parte affidavits, then on a motion for a new trial affidavits might be filed to show what rulings the court made upon the evidence and the instructions. If a trial judge does not remember what occurred he may refresh his recollection by having the notes of the reporter read to him, Or by recalling witnesses or jurors, or he may, of his own volition, receive affidavits; but when his recollection has been refreshed it is he who must certify to the facts, and such facts can only be reviewed upon his certificate as to what occurred. If after the filing of such an affidavit for a new trial the court denies the motion, it will be presumed in support of the action of the court that the trial judge knew that the statements in the affidavit of what occurred in open court were untrue, or that their effect was obviated by other things which occurred in open court to the knowledge of the trial judge. Among the many cases in which this rule has been announced are Mayes v. People, 106 Ill. 306; Peyton v. Village of Morgan Park, 172 Ill. 102; Deel v. Heiligenstein, 244 Ill. 239; People v. Strauch, 247 Ill. 220. The contents of the affidavit referred to in the case last cited more fully appear in the opinion of the Appellate Court in the same case, 153 Ill. App. 544.

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Bluebook (online)
200 Ill. App. 556, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tindall-v-chicago-northwestern-railway-co-illappct-1916.