Trull v. Ratner

84 N.E.2d 843, 337 Ill. App. 45, 1949 Ill. App. LEXIS 241
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 16, 1949
DocketGen. No. 44,546
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 84 N.E.2d 843 (Trull v. Ratner) 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
Trull v. Ratner, 84 N.E.2d 843, 337 Ill. App. 45, 1949 Ill. App. LEXIS 241 (Ill. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Burke

delivered the opinion of the court.

Arthur Lloyd Trull, a minor, sued Sadie Batner, doing business as Midwest Transfer Co., to recover for personal injuries sustained on January 24, 1946, when crossing Mannheim Boad in the vicinity of Medill avenue in Leyden township, Cook county, he was struck by the northbound truck of the defendant, driven by Jesse Floyd. A trial resulted in a verdict for $30,000. Defendant’s motion for a new trial was overruled and judgment was entered on the verdict. She appeals.

Arthur Trull, plaintiff, was about 11 years and 8 months old on Thursday, January 24, 1946. He lived with his parents and was a pupil in the fifth grade in a Lutheran school located at Fullerton avenue, west of Mannheim Boad. On that day he left for school at about 8:30 in the morning, taking his lunch with him. At the lunch period he and Bruce Keith, another pupil, walked east to Mannheim Boad, then south, with the intention of going to a store for the purpose of purchasing candy, the store being located on the east side of Mannheim Boad near Medill avenue. Mannheim Boad is a black top, four lane road, running in a northerly and southerly direction and is about 40 feet wide. Medill avenue runs in an easterly and westerly direction. It joins the west side of Mannheim Boad at right angles. It also joins the east side of Mannheim Boad at right angles about 95 feet north of the north line of Medill avenue as it runs west from Mannheim Boad. This makes a jog of 95 feet in the continuity of Medill avenue at Mannheim Boad. Medill avenue, running into Mannheim Boad from the east is 24 feet wide and running into Mannheim Boad from the west is 20 feet wide. A surveyor’s plat (on a scale of one inch equalling 10 feet) shows at approximately 3% inches south of Bast Medill avenue on the east side of Mannheim Road the legend “Pedestrian Crossing Sign.” This places the sign at approximately 35 feet south of the intersection of Mannheim Road and Bast Medill avenue. These measurements were obtained by laying a ruler on the plat.

The area of the occurrence is a business district. There are business houses on both sides of the road. There is a subdivision on either side and the area is thickly populated. The temperature was about freezing. There was a smooth coat of ice on the road, and where the wheels had worn the ice down the spots were bare. Testimony introduced by plaintiff was to the effect that he was crossing Mannheim Road from the west to the east at the pedestrian crossing in company with Bruce Keith. Defendant’s driver testified that the boy was crossing at the Medill avenue crossing. Plaintiff had traversed almost the entire distance and had almost cleared the intersection when he was struck by the truck. This truck and trailer weighed between 12,000 and 13,000 pounds. The driver saw the boys when they were 200 to 300 feet from him. The vehicle was equipped with vacuum hydraulic brakes in good condition. The driver stated that he was going at least 30 miles an hour. Plaintiff’s witnesses place the speed of the truck at between 40 and 45 miles an hour. There was evidence that the driver did not change direction, reduce speed, blow a horn or give a signal. There was nothing to obstruct the view of the driver and as he came up that 200 or 300 feet he saw the boys all the time. There were no skid marks or brake marks on the road from the place where the plaintiff was struck up to where the truck stopped; nor were there any marks on the pavement indicating that the brakes had been applied. Plaintiff’s witnesses testified that the vehicle proceeded from 150 to 200 feet after striking the boy. Those who came to the aid of the boy found him lying in an unconscious condition about 15 feet east of the southeast corner of Bast Medill avenue and Mannheim Eoad. A deputy sheriff’s car responded to a call and removed the boy to a hospital.

The defendant insists that the court erred in giving the following instructions:

“The court instructs the jury that at the time of the occurrence of the accident in this case there was in full force and effect in the State of Illinois, a statute which provided: ‘Where traffic control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except as otherwise provided in this article. ’

“The court instructs you that when a tort or wrong is committed by an agent or employee in the course of his employment, and while pursuing his employer’s business, the employer will be liable for any damages resulting from such tort or wrongful act although it is done without the employer’s knowledge or consent, unless the wrongful act is a wilful departure from such employment or business.

“If from the evidence and under the instructions of the court you find that the plaintiff had the right-of-way over the defendant’s truck, at the intersection in question, and if you further believe from the evidence that the plaintiff was at all times in the exercise of ordinary care, as was required of a minor of his age, experience and intelligence, then you are instructed that the plaintiff, until there was notice to him to the contrary, had the right to assume in the exercise of ordinary care that the driver of the defendant’s truck would yield the right-of-way to the plaintiff. ’ ’ •

In arguing this point defendant calls attention to the following definitions of “intersection” and “crosswalk” in sections 13 and 14 of the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (pars. 110 and Ill, ch. 95%, Ill. Rev. Stat. 1947 [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 85.142,85.143]):

“Intersection. The area embraced with the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines, or, if none, then the lateral boundary lines of the roadways of two highways which join one another at, or approximately at, right angles, or the area within which vehicles traveling upon different highways joining at any other angle may come in conflict.

“Crosswalk, (a) That portion of a roadway ordinarily included within the prolongation or connection of the lateral lines of sidewalks at intersections, (b) Any portion of a roadway distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface.”

Defendant states that the way the- streets are laid out ‘ ‘ takes the locality of this accident out of the definition of an intersection, as defined by statute, because from the undisputed testimony there can be no prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines at a point where there is a jog of 75 feet.” We cannot agree with this view. The lateral curb lines, or lateral boundary lines of East Medill avenue can be prolonged to the west and projected across to the western lateral boundary line of Mannheim Road. These two highways join one another at right angles. In our opinion East Medill avenue and Mannheim Road intersect. In Geschwindner v. Comer, 222 Ill. App. 417, the court said (421):

“It is also contended that these instructions are erroneous for the reason, as it claimed, that Fourteenth street and Summit avenue do not intersect. It is contended by appellant that for Fourteenth street to intersect Summit avenue so as to come within the ordinance and statute, it would have to cross Summit avenue and extend on north.

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Bluebook (online)
84 N.E.2d 843, 337 Ill. App. 45, 1949 Ill. App. LEXIS 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trull-v-ratner-illappct-1949.