Wiedow v. Carpenter

34 N.E.2d 83, 310 Ill. App. 342, 1941 Ill. App. LEXIS 828
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 19, 1941
DocketGen. No. 41,568
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 34 N.E.2d 83 (Wiedow v. Carpenter) 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
Wiedow v. Carpenter, 34 N.E.2d 83, 310 Ill. App. 342, 1941 Ill. App. LEXIS 828 (Ill. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

Mr. Justice McSurelt

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action under the Dram Shop Act. (Ch. 43, par. 135, § 14, art. 6, Ill. Rev. Stat. 1939 [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 68.042].) Upon trial by a jury plaintiff had a verdict and judgment for $20,000 against Ellen Alden Carpenter, the owner of the premises and Landmore Liquor Company, a corporation, which operated the dram shop, and Sigurd Erickson, the assailant who injured plaintiff. The first two named defendants appeal.

It is conceded that Ellen Alden Carpenter on November 14, 1938, the date of the instant occurrence, owned the property at 1046 Leland avenue, in Chicago; that defendant Landmore Liquor Company was her tenant, operating a tavern on the premises, selling alcoholic liquors. On the day in question plaintiff, at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, went into the tavern for a glass of beer; he remained there fifteen or twenty minutes; he was carrying two bundles; as he was leaving the tavern he accidentally dropped one bundle and as he stooped to pick it up defendant Erickson fired a blank cartridge from a pencil gun into plaintiff’s rectum; plaintiff did not know Erickson and had no conversation with him while in the tavern; he started for home and had gone a short distance when he felt blood running down into his shoes; he felt dizzy and fell, was picked up and assisted to his home and later taken to the Lakeview Hospital, and then to the Hines Hospital, as he was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He was seriously injured.

Although there is some dispute, it was sufficiently proved that. Erickson was drunk at the time of the shootingi A witness testified that Erickson shot the pencil gun several times before he shot plaintiff; that he was served repeatedly with drinks and was drunk the first time he took out his pencil gun, and continued to drink after that for about half an hour or forty-five minutes. Lewis, the bartender, testified he served drinks to Erickson during the time he heard reports from the pencil gun; that Erickson shot the weapon about four times before shooting plaintiff; that he continued to sell Erickson liquor after he determined that he was intoxicated. There is little if any dispute as to the facts.

Counsel for defendants cite a number of alleged procedural errors which it is claimed require a reversal. It is said the court erred in overruling the motion of the dram shop defendants for severance and a separate trial from defendant Sigurd Erickson. It is argued that it tended to confuse the jury to submit a charge against the owner of the premises and the tavern keeper, under the Dram Shop Act, and at the same time a charge against Erickson seeking damages because of a wilful and wanton assault by him upon plaintiff.

The three defendants were properly joined in the one complaint. Section 24 of the Civil Practice Act (ch. 110, par. 148) provides for the joinder of defendants in one action when a liability is asserted against them arising out of the same transaction, regardless of the number of causes of action joined, and Rule 12 of the Supreme Court (ch. 110, par. 259.12) provides that different breaches of duty, whether statutory or at common law, ‘1 growing out of the same transaction, or based on the same set of facts may be treated as a single claim or cause of action, and set up in the same count.” In Baker v. S. A. Healy Co., 302 Ill. App. 634, the Healy company was sued on the basis of negligence, the Sanitary District of Chicago on the basis of liability by reason of the State Constitution and the Sanitary District Act, and the city of Chicago was also sued because it permitted dangerous work to be done in the street; a motion was there made to dismiss because of the purported misjoinder of the parties. It was held proper to join the three defendants in the same complaint although the liability of each defendant was upon a different basis. While the respective claims may be differently named, yet they are based on the same occurrence. Defendants cite Randall Dairy Co. v. Pevely Dairy Co., 278 Ill. App. 350. There the plaintiff joined in a single count a cause of action for slander and a cause of action for enticing away plaintiff’s servants. This was held bad as the breaches did not grow out of the same transaction, nor were they based on the same set of facts. In the instant case the breaches were baséd upon the same set of facts, and an order of severance would simply mean two separate trials presenting the same facts.

Section 51 of the Civil Practice Act provides that actions may be severed or consolidated, as an aid to convenience, “whenever it can be done without prejudice to a substantial right.” See Barnes v. Swedish American Nat. Bank, 371 Ill. 20, 25.

The complaint set out the Dram Shop Act, and specifically the section (par. 135, § 14, art. 6) which provides for “exemplary damages” by stating that one who “shall knowingly permit therein the sale of any alcoholic liquors that have caused, in whole or in part, the intoxication of any person, shall be liable, severally or jointly, with the person or persons selling or giving alcoholic liquors aforesaid, for all damages sustained, and for exemplary damages. ’ ’ This reasonably informed defendants of the nature of the claim which they would be called upon to meet. This was sufficient. Section 42, Civil Practice Act.

When the case came on for trial and Frank Lewis, the bartender for the Landmore Liquor Company, had testified he had sold Erickson liquor while he was intoxicated, the court allowed an amendment to the amended complaint in order to conform to the proof. This amendment alleged that the Landmore Liquor Company, through its agents, wilfully continued to serve intoxicating liquor to defendant Erickson while he was in an intoxicated condition prior to the shooting in question, which intoxicating liquor aggravated the intoxicated condition of Erickson, and that this sale was made wilfully and wantonly, entitling plaintiff to recover, from defendants Carpenter and the Liquor company, punitive damages in addition to the actual damages sustained. It was proper to allow this amendment. Section 46 of the Civil Practice Act provides that a pleading may he amended at any time to conform the pleadings to the proofs. Jackson v. Jackson, 294 Ill. App. 552; Duncan v. Kammeier, 206 Ill. App. 207. We also note that defendants made no motion to strike this amendment but, by stipulation of the parties, filed an answer thereto.

Two physicians connected with the Hines Hospital, Dr. Brown and Dr. Martin, testified as to the extent of plaintiff’s injuries. In an attempt to impeach their testimony defendants sought to introduce a summary of the hospital record which contained the statement, “The wound healed, he has good rectal sphincteric control.” This portion of the summary was not admitted. It was composed by a board of physicians only one of which examined and treated plaintiff. Hone of these physicians was called as a witness. The summary was merely the conclusion of the physicians, who based their opinions not upon an examination of the patient but upon examination of the hospital record. A similar point was involved in Branch v. Woulfe, 300 Ill. App. 472, where a hospital record made by a doctor not a witness in the cause was properly excluded. See also Plewe v. Chicago Motor Coach Co., 283 Ill. App. 57.

Moreover, the statement in the summary which was ruled out by the court was conveyed to the jury in the cross-examination of Dr. Brown.

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Bluebook (online)
34 N.E.2d 83, 310 Ill. App. 342, 1941 Ill. App. LEXIS 828, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wiedow-v-carpenter-illappct-1941.