Tuttle v. Checker Taxi Co.

279 Ill. App. 455, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 122
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 1, 1935
DocketGen. No. 37,911
StatusPublished

This text of 279 Ill. App. 455 (Tuttle v. Checker Taxi 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
Tuttle v. Checker Taxi Co., 279 Ill. App. 455, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 122 (Ill. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice O’Connor

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff brought an action against defendants to recover damages for personal injuries claimed to have been sustained by her as a result of being struck and injured by the negligent operation of a taxicab owned and- operated by defendants. There was a jury trial and a verdict in favor of defendants. Plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was allowed and leave was granted by this court allowing defendants an appeal from the order awarding a new trial. Upon consideration by this court, the order appealed from was affirmed. Tuttle v. Checker Taxi Co., 274 Ill. App. 525. There was another trial of the case and a verdict and judgment in defendants’ favor and plaintiff appeals.

The record discloses that the accident occurred on State street about 100 feet south of Madison street, as plaintiff was attempting to board a' northbound street car. Plaintiff left the east curb, passing between two automobiles in the first, or east, lane of traffic, and as she reached the second lane of traffic was struck by one of defendants’ northbound taxicabs driven in the second lane by its chauffeur, Fluckiger, the other defendant.

The evidence tends to show that plaintiff was about opposite the rear step of the street car. The space between the east curb and the east rail of the northbound track was about 22 feet. A loading zone for street cars had been established at this place; it was indicated by a yellow line painted on the pavement which ran parallel with the street car tracks, and six feet east of the east rail. This line commenced at a point about 20 feet south of the “stop and go” light at the street intersection and continued south in a straight line parallel to the street car tracks for 95 feet, when it turned diagonally toward the street car tracks for 20 feet. The evidence is to the effect that at the time the Checker cab struck plaintiff it was less than 10 feet from the rear step of the street car, which the evidence tends to show was standing for the purpose of receiving passengers at the time. There were a great many people standing in the loading zone intending to board the car.

Plaintiff testified that as she stepped between the automobiles in the east lane and into the second lane of the northbound traffic, the taxicab, which was stopped, “lurched forward” and struck her, throwing her to the ground and severely injuring her.

On the other side, the taxi driver testified that the cab had not stopped but was moving when plaintiff suddenly stepped from between the automobiles in the east lane of traffic in front of the cab and was struck by the right front fender.

Plaintiff contends that the court erred in admitting two ordinances of the City of Chicago over objection of her counsel; that these ordinances are invalid because they are in conflict with the statute. The first ordinance complained of is par. (b), sec. 77, Art. VIII of the Uniform Traffic Code of Chicago. It provides that:

“It shall be unlawful for the operator of any vehicle to fail to stop said vehicle not less than ten feet to the rear of the nearest open doorway of any street car that has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers, or for said operator to again proceed until all persons have boarded said street car or have reached a place of safety. This provision shall not. apply to passing upon the left of any street car on a one-way street or upon such streets where the tracks are so located as to prevent compliance with the rule.

“Provided, however, that where a safety zone has been established or at any intersection where traffic is directed by a police officer or by an official traffic signal, an operator need not stop but may proceed at a rate of speed consistent with the safety of pedestrians. ’ ’

Counsel say that this ordinance conflicts with sec. 40 of the Motor Vehicle Act of this State. (Ch. 95a, fí 41, Cahill’s 1933 Stats.) The pertinent portion of that section provides: “In approaching or passing a street railway car, which has been stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers, the operator of every motor vehicle or motor bicycle shall not drive such vehicle or bicycle within ten feet of the running board or lowest step of such car, except by the express direction of a traffic officer. ’ ’

Sec. 26 of the same chapter of the Motor Vehicle Act provides, inter alia, “Except as in this section provided, no city, town or village or other municipality ■shall have power to make any ordinance, by-laws or resolutions limiting or restricting the speed of motor vehicles or motor bicycles, and no ordinance, by-law or resolution heretofore or hereafter made by any city, village or town or other municipal corporation within this State, by whatever name known or designated, in respect to or limiting the speed of motor vehicles or motor bicycles shall have any force, effect or validity, and they are hereby declared to be of no validity or effect: Provided, that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed as affecting the power of municipal corporations to make and enforce ordinances, rules and regulations affecting motor trucks and motor driven commercial vehicles used within their limits for public hire, or from making and enforcing reasonable traffic and other regulations except as to rates of speed not inconsistent with the provisions hereof.”

Obviously if an ordinance is contrary to a statute, the ordinance must give way. The ordinance, like the statute, makes it unlawful for the operator of any motor vehicle to fail to stop the vehicle not less than 10 feet from a street car that has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers. But the statute (sec. 26) also provides that nothing contained in the act shall prevent a municipality “from making and enforcing reasonable traffic and other regulations except as to rates of speed,” which is not inconsistent with the act. The ordinance provides that it is unnecessary for the operator of a motor vehicle to stop 10 feet from a street car which was stopped to receive or discharge passengers “where a safety zone has been established” or “where traffic is directed by a police officer or by an official traffic signal,” in which case the motor vehicle “may proceed at a rate of speed consistent with the safety of pedestrians.”

We think this provision of the ordinance is but a traffic regulation authorized by the statute above quoted. City of Chicago v. Francis, 262 Ill. 331; City of Chicago v. Keogh, 291 Ill. 188; Pettit v. Weil-McLain Co., 252 Ill. App. 423; Village of Winnetka v. Sinnett, 272 Ill. App. 143.

In the Francis case, 262 Ill. 331, an ordinance of the City of Chicago (which required the owner of a motor vehicle to display a number upon such vehicle corresponding with the city license) was held to be in conflict with the statute and void. The law then contained the same provision as that in sec. 26 above quoted, and in discussing this provision the court said (p. 337): “The exception, from the law, of motor trucks and motor-driven commercial vehicles, which would necessarily be used locally, emphasizes the intent of the law in regard to motor vehicles like the one used by plaintiff in error in this case.

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Related

Bain Peanut Co. of Tex. v. Pinson
282 U.S. 499 (Supreme Court, 1931)
City of Chicago v. Francis
104 N.E. 662 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1914)
City of Chicago v. Keogh
125 N.E. 881 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1919)
Pettit v. Weil-McLain Co.
252 Ill. App. 423 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1929)
Village of Winnetka v. Sinnett
272 Ill. App. 143 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1933)
Tuttle v. Checker Taxi Co.
274 Ill. App. 525 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1934)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
279 Ill. App. 455, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tuttle-v-checker-taxi-co-illappct-1935.