Johnston v. City of East Moline

• Decision Date: 22 March 1950
• Docket Number: No. 31298,31298
• Citation: 405 Ill. 460,91 N.E.2d 401
• Parties: JOHNSTON v. CITY OF EAST MOLINE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 401

91 N.E.2d 401

405 Ill. 460

JOHNSTON v. CITY OF EAST MOLINE.

No. 31298.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 22, 1950.

Ben A. Stewart, and Roy H. Glockhoff, both of East Moline, for appellant.

Eagle & Eagle, of Rock Island, for appellee.

SIMPSON, Justice.

Leave to appeal having been granted, the appellant, the city of East Moline, is asking that we reverse two judgments against it, one in favor of Matilda Johnston, individually, and one in her favor as executrix of the estate of Dr. James P. Johnston, deceased. The judgments were obtained in the circuit court of Rock Island County and affirmed by the Appellate Court, 338 Ill.App. 220, 87 N.E.2d 22, 29. Motions for directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict were made by appellant in the lower court but were denied. There was another defendant below but a severance was granted and the case proceeded against appellant alone.

The principal point urged for determination is whether or not the municipality, in the construction, maintenance and operation of automatic electric traffic signals, was engaged in a governmental function or in a corporate or proprietary one. The appellant contends it is not liable because the acts and omissions complained of occurred in the exercise of its governmental functions, whereas the respondent takes the view that the city was engaged in corporate duties for which it must respond in damages for its negligent conduct. Appellant also contends that the negligence alleged was not the proximate cause of the injury.

February 23, 1945, a collision between two automobiles resulting in the injuries complained of occurred at the intersection of Seventh Street and Seventeenth Avenue in the city of East Moline. At this point the former street runs north and south while the other runs east and west. Since 1928 the traffic moving over this intersection in both directions has been controlled by electric automatic traffic signals which displayed at regular intervals red, amber and green lights. Traffic lights were located on each corner of the intersection.

February 18, 1945, a standard supporting the traffic lights on the northwest corner of the intersection was knocked down and broken, taking it entirely out of operation. The city hall was but a short distance away and officers of the city learned that the standard was rendered useless soon after the occurrence and a record thereof was made. The standard was not replaced until March 3, following, although the city ordered the repairs promptly. The other three sets of signals were permitted to operate during the time the northwest signal was gone, but no control was exercised over the traffic moving west on Seventeenth Avenue, being that which the absent signal would have controlled.

February 23, 1945, at about 10:00 p.m., Matilda Johnston and her husband, the deceased were riding south on Seventh Street in East Moline. He was driving the automobile and as they approached the intersection of Seventh Street with Seventeenth Avenue the traffic signal controlling their movement turned green and was still green as they entered the intersection traveling at about twenty miles per hour. The standard on the northwest corner, prior to its destruction, faced the east and controlled the traffic traveling west on Seventeenth Avenue. The standard on the southwest corner faces north and controls traffic going south on Seventh Street. A visor over each of the reflectors throws the light out into the street it faces but obscures the light to one traveling at right angles on the intersecting street.

Seventeenth Avenue is a main street through the city and carries a heavy volume of traffic, the westbound of which was without signal control at this intersection while the northwest standard was out of operation. From February 18 to the time of the accident in question a number of minor accidents occurred at this intersection and a number of collisions were narrowly avoided.

Immediately before the accident in question an automobile owned by Lester Thompson, driven by his son James L. Thompson, was proceeding west on Seventeenth Avenue. As it approached the intersection with Seventh Street there was no signal whatever controlling traffic in that direction. It entered the intersection at a speed of approximately twenty-five miles per hour, the driver not seeing the car of the deceased until it was too late to avoid a collision. The right front of the Thompson car came in contact with the left front of the Johnston car throwing Johnston to the pavement. As he lay there unconscious another car, traveling west on Seventeenth Avenue, with no signals controlling its movement, ran through the intersection and across both of Johnston's legs. He died June 10, 1945, as a result of the injuries received in this collision.

It will be seen from the above that the deceased was, by the green light controlling his movement, invited into and through the intersection without any effort being made by appellant to protect him from cross traffic. During the five and one half days prior to the accident all like traffic moving over this intersection was subjected to the same hazard. It was indeed probable, under the conditions existing at this intersection during that period, that collisions would occur. The city was charged with knowledge of this fact but did nothing to cure the evil. As was said by the Appellate Court in its affirming opinion: 'It was only a question of time under the conditions which the municipality permitted to exist at this intersection, until a serious accident happened.'

We believe it was negligence for appellant to leave this intersection partly controlled and partly uncontrolled by traffic signals in the manner it did and that its negligence was the proximate cause of the injury. We said in Neering v. Illinois Central Railroad Co., 383 Ill. 366, 50 N.E.2d 497, 503: 'What constitutes proximate cause has been defined in numerous decisions, and there is practically no difference of opinion as to what the rule is. The injury must be the natural and probable result of the negligent act or omission and be of such a character as an ordinarily prudent person ought to have foreseen as likely to occur as a result of the negligence, although it is not essential that the person charged with negligence should have foreseen the precise injury which resulted from his act.' The same rule is announced in Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Oswald, 338 Ill. 270, 170 N.E. 247, and in Hartnett v. Boston Store, 265 Ill. 331, 106 N.E. 837, L.R.A. 1915C, 460.

An intervening and efficient cause is a new and independent force which breaks the causal connection between the original wrong and the injury and itself becomes the direct and immediate cause of the injury. Pullman Palace Car Co. v. Laack, 143 Ill. 242, 32 N.E. 285, 18 L.R.A. 215; Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Oswald, 338 Ill. 270, 170 N.E. 247. The intervention of independent concurrent or intervening forces will not break causal connection if the intervention of such forces was, itself, probable or foreseeable. Sycamore Preserve Works v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co., 366 Ill. 11, 7 N.E.2d 740, 111 A.L.R. 1133; Wintersteen v. National Cooperage & Woodenware Co., 361 Ill. 95, 197 N.E. 578; Garibaldi & Cuneo v. O'Connor, 210 Ill. 284, 71 N.E. 379, 66 L.R.A. 73; Armour v. Golkowska, 202 Ill. 144, 66 N.E. 1037.

Can the city evade responsibility for this injury on the theory that its acts and omissions were in the exercise of its governmental function? There is no controversy concerning the material facts as above enumerated. A municipality is not liable in damages for injuries to persons resulting from the negligence of its agents and servants while in the exercise of its governmental functions. LePitre v. Chicago Park Dist., 374 Ill. 184, 29 N.E.2d 81; Gebhardt v. Village of LaGrange Park, 354 Ill. 234, 188 N.E. 372, but it is equally...