Chicago & Eastern Ill. R. R. Co. v. Holland

• Decision Date: 31 March 1886
• Citation: 18 Bradw. 418,18 Ill.App. 418
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois
• Parties: CHICAGO & EASTERN ILLINOIS R. R. CO.v.ISAAC W. HOLLAND.

18 Ill.App. 418

18 Bradw. 418

CHICAGO & EASTERN ILLINOIS R. R. CO.

v.ISAAC W. HOLLAND.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District.

March Term, 1886.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. JOSEPH E. GARY, Judge, presiding. Opinion filed March 8, 1886.

Mr. WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, for appellant.

Messrs. G. W. & J. T. KRETZINGER, for appellee.BAILEY, P. J.

This was an action on the case, brought by Isaac W. Holland against the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, to recover damages for a personal injury, caused, as is alleged, by the negligence of the defendant's servants. The plaintiff, at the time he was injured, was in the employ of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, as a conductor in charge of a suburban passenger train running on one of the lines of that company between the city of Chicago and South Chicago. It appears that from South Chicago west for several miles the track of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railway Company over which the defendant runs its trains to and from Chicago, is parallel with and but a few feet distant from the track of the Rock Island Company, and that at a point some two miles west of South Chicago, both tracks are intersected, nearly at right angles, by the track of still another railroad running to Pullman, the last mentioned track being also used by the defendant for running its trains to that place. About a quarter of a mile east of the Pullman crossing is a side track of the Western Indiana Company turning off and running a considerable distance to the north to certain stone quarries, and known as the quarry track. The Pullman track was connected with the track of the Rock Island Company by a side track known as a “Y,” but had no such connection with the Western Indiana track. That track, however, was connected with the Rock Island track by a side track or “cross-over,” running easterly from the switch communicating with the quarry track. It thus became possible for the defendant's trains to reach the Pullman track by crossing over on the Rock Island track, running thence west to the Pullman “Y,” and over that to the Pullman track.

For a year or more prior to the plaintiff's injury, the defendant had used the Rock Island track in the way above indicated for transferring its freight trains to and from the Pullman track, under a license from the Rock Island Company, such license being granted upon the express condition that the defendant's trains should be kept out of the way of the Rock Island passenger trains, the defendant's trains and the men in charge of the same being subject to a rule of the Rock Island Company, which provided, in substance, that passenger trains should not be delayed, and that freight trains should not be moved out onto the main track in advance of passenger trains due or in sight, and in the event of their occupation of the main track when passenger trains were delayed, they should, on the appearance of such trains, be run to the nearest siding, or, if necessary, onto the other main track, and that in all cases such freight trains should be properly protected.

The usual trip of the plaintiff's dummy train was, from Chicago, past the Pullman crossing, to South Chicago, thence returning about half a mile to a “Y” communicating with a track running south, thence by that track to Irondale, thence back to South Chicago, thence west, past the Pullman crossing, to Chicago. The time usually occupied in making that part of the trip east of Pullman crossing was thirty-five minutes.

On the 16th day of February, 1883, the date of the injury, the plaintiff reached Pullman crossing on his way east a few minutes late. The day was dark, there being a dense fog which rendered it impossible to distinguish objects at a distance of more than one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet. One of defendant's freight trains, consisting of between twenty and thirty cars, was standing on a side track, awaiting an opportunity to go over to the Pullman track, the engine of that train being on the “cross-over” within about fifty feet of the Rock Island track. After the plaintiff passed, the defendant's train was moved out onto the Rock Island track, and started back toward the Pullman crossing. No precautions were taken to warn those in charge of the dummy train that the track was being thus obstructed. While the...