Welch v. City of Chicago

236 Ill. App. 520, 1925 Ill. App. LEXIS 134
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 29, 1925
DocketGen. No. 29,349
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 236 Ill. App. 520 (Welch v. City of Chicago) 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
Welch v. City of Chicago, 236 Ill. App. 520, 1925 Ill. App. LEXIS 134 (Ill. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Taylor

delivered the opinion .of the court.

This is an appeal hy the defendant, City of Chicago, from a judgment obtained in the circuit court by the plaintiff, Bertha Welch, for $18,000 for injuries alleged to have been received by her as the result of falling in the street, near the southeast comer of Madison and State Streets in the City of Chicago.

The accident happened on March 3, 1920. The suit was brought on March 2, 1921, and the declaration, consisting of two counts, was filed on March 7, 1921. The City of Chicago was then sole defendant.

On March 2, 1922, the Peoples Gas Light. & Coke Company, the Commonwealth Edison Company, the Chicago City Railway Company, the Chicago Railways Company, the Chicago Telephone Company and the Illinois Bell Telephone Company were made additional parties defendant, and on the same day the plaintiff filed an amended declaration consisting of four counts. The first count of the amended declaration alleges that each of the defendants, except the City made an opening in Madison street, at its intersection with State street, and did the work so negligently that it caused a certain dangerous and ’ unsafe hole to be and remain in said street, and that the defendant, the City of Chicago, authorized and permitted the making of the hole. It further alleges that the plaintiff, while passing over and crossing the place in question, and while using ordinary care for her own safety, tripped and fell into the hole and was severely and permanently injured.

The second count of the declaration sets up sections 2445, 2446 and 2448 of the Municipal Code of the City of Chicago. In that count it is alleged that all of the defendants, except the City of Chicago, dug a hole in the comer of State and Madison streets and failed to put back, restore and replace, the soil or other material and that by reason of such failure a depression or opening of said street was left that was dangerous and unsafe to the public, which was contrary to the ordinances of the City of Chicago.

The third count alleges that the defendants, except the City of Chicago, made openings in the street at the point in question and permitted divers holes and depressions in the surface of the street after the work was done, and that it was done with the knowledge and consent of the City of Chicago and that the defendants negligently failed to guard or protect the hole.

The fourth count sets up sections 2543 and 3465 of the Municipal Code, the first of which prohibits contractors from opening up more than two blocks of street at one time and requires the earth to be repacked solidly after the work is done, and the second requires those who dig into the streets to erect a fence around the excavation. That count also alleges that all the defendants, except the City of Chicago, dug a hole at the point in question and failed to put a fence around it.

Each of the four counts alleges that on June 30, 1920, the plaintiff, by her attorneys, filed in the office of the city attorney, and also in the office of the city clerk, a statement in writing concerning the plaintiff and the accident pursuant to the statutory requirement.

On November 5, 1923, the Chicago Telephone Company, Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago Railways Company, and Chicago City Railway Company, were dismissed out of the case. At the close of the evidence the jury found the Gas Company not guilty and brought in a verdict against the City in the sum of $18,000.

It is contended (1) that the original declaration did not sufficiently allege that a six months’ statutory notice was given, and that when the amended declaration was filed, which was over a year after the accident, the plaintiff’s cause of action did not exist; (2) that, even if the original declaration be considered good as to notice, the evidence does not prove the giving of such a notice as complies with the statute; (3) that the verdict is manifestly against the weight of the evidence; (4) that certain remarks of the trial judge violated the statute requiring written instructions; (5) that the verdict was excessive; and (6) that there was error in regard to certain instructions.

(1) As to the notice, as pleaded, and (2) as proved. The question of pleading arises by reason of the city having undertaken to plead the statute of limitations to the amended declaration, and a demurrer thereto having been sustained. It is contended that the original declaration did not contain sufficient averments that the six months’ statutory notice to the City had been given; that on that subject it only stated conclusions, and, as the original declaration did not state a cause, of action, the amended declaration filed March 2, 1922, two years after the accident, was too late and the cause of action was at an end. The original declaration, consisting of two counts, on the subject of notice, contained the following:

“The plaintiff alleges that prior to filing this, her suit, the plaintiff caused to be filed in the office of the City Attorney of the City of Chicago, and also in the office of the City Clerk of the City of Chicago, written notices of the injury herein described, said notices containing a statement of the hour, date and year on which the said accident occurred together with the location where the said accident occurred, and the name of the physician attending the plaintiff, after she received said injury.”

Section 2, ch. 70 (Cahill’s St. 1923, p. 1917), provides, in regard to suits for injuries against cities, that “Any person who is about to bring any action or suit at law in any court against any incorporated city, village or town for damages on account of any personal injury shall, within six months from the date of injury, * * * either by himself, agent or attorney, file in the office of the city attorney * * * a statement in writing, signed by such person, * * * giving the name of the person to whom such cause of action has accrued, the name and residence of person injured, the date and about the hour of the accident, the place or location where such accident occurred, and the name and address of the attending physician, if any.”

Section 3 [Cahill’s St. ch. 70, f| 8] provides that if the notice is not filed as required by section 2, “then any such suit brought against any such city shall be dismissed and the person to whom any such cause of action accrued for any personal injury shall be forever barred from further suing.”

This subject was considered elaborately by the Supreme Court in Walters v. City of Ottawa, 240 Ill. 259. In that ease the original declaration contained no reference to any kind of a notice. The court said: “There is no allegation in either of the original counts having even remote reference to the notice, — nothing from which the giving of notice can be implied.

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Related

Warner v. City of Chicago
378 N.E.2d 502 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1978)
Snyder v. Shepard
25 N.E.2d 531 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 Ill. App. 520, 1925 Ill. App. LEXIS 134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/welch-v-city-of-chicago-illappct-1925.