Letsos v. Chicago Transit Authority

• Decision Date: 04 December 1970
• Docket Number: No. 42947,42947
• Citation: 265 N.E.2d 650,47 Ill.2d 437
• Parties: Andrew LETSOS, Appellee, v. CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 650

265 N.E.2d 650

47 Ill.2d 437

Andrew LETSOS, Appellee, v. CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Appellant.

No. 42947.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 4, 1970.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 27, 1971.

George J. Schaller, O. R. Hamlink, Jerome F. Dixon and Michael A. Gerrard, Chicago, for appellant.

William J. Colohan and John L. Roach, Chicago, for appellee.

WARD, Justice.

The plaintiff, Andrew Letsos, while a fare-paying passenger on a bus operated by the defendant, was shot in the left leg and heel by an unidentified passenger. His complaint in the circuit court of Cook County for personal injuries charged the defendant was negligent in failing to take timely action to protect the plaintiff by warning, restraining or rejecting passengers whose disorderly or dangerous acts were known or should have been known or anticipated by the defendant. The defendant's motion for a directed verdict was denied and the jury returned a verdict for $25,000 in favor of the plaintiff. After denying the defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the circuit court entered judgment. The Appellate Court, First Judicial District, affirmed. (Letsos v. Chicago Transit Authority, 118 Ill.App.2d 26, 254 N.E.2d 645.) We have granted the defendant's petition for leave to appeal.

The sole question raised here, and earlier in the appellate court, is whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. We have held that such motions should be allowed only in cases in which the totality of the evidence, 'viewed in its aspect most favorable to the opponent, so overwhelmingly favors movant that no contrary verdict based on that evidence could ever stand.' Pedrick v. Peoria and Eastern Railroad Co., 37 Ill.2d 494, 510, 229 N.E.2d 504, 513.

The plaintiff testified that on the evening of April 2, 1962, he and his cousin, Peter Tselios, boarded a westbound Madison Street bus of the defendant at Clark (100 West) and Madison in Chicago. Both secured seats near the front of the bus. Tselios occupied a place on a side seat to the right of the driver and the plaintiff sat on the aisle side of the first two-passenger seat facing the front of the bus. A short time after boarding, the plaintiff said he heard some unusual noises coming from the rear of the bus. The noises were not too loud at first, but they continued until the shooting, he testified. The plaintiff described the activity as 'hollering and argument about something.'

After making a number of uneventful stops, the bus approached Oakley Boulevard (2300 West). There a passenger, who came from the rear of the bus, tripped over or stepped on Tselios's feet as the passenger walked toward the front door of the bus. Tselios said to the passenger: 'You stepped on my feet.' The passenger said nothing, according to the plaintiff's testimony, and promptly alighted from the bus. When the door had been closed, the plaintiff testified, a man seated behind the driver on the side seat across from Tselios told Tselios to remove his feet from the aisle. Tselios's reponse was that the passenger could mind his own business. The man rose and began to move toward Tselios with his arms outstretched. Almost simultaneously, the plaintiff said, the noise in the rear of the bus grew very loud. As the plaintiff turned in his seat to look back to the rear, shots rang out, wounding the plaintiff. He did not see his assailant but he surmised that the shots came from the rear of the vehicle. He said he asked the driver to stop the bus but that it did not stop until it reached Western Avenue (2400 West), one block west of Oakley. The plaintiff's testimony was that the bus was one-half block from Western Avenue when the passenger stood and menaced Tselios.

The testimony given by the bus driver differed sharply from that of the plaintiff. The driver testified that he heard no noise, commotion or disturbance on the bus prior to the Oakley Boulevard stop. At this stop, he said, a passenger stumbled on his way to the front door. The passenger then turned, he said, and told Tselios to remove his feet from the aisle. When it appeared to the driver that the passenger was 'going to get involved physically' with Tselios, the driver directed the pasenger to leave the bus. The man did alight, but then, the driver testified, he attempted to re-board the bus. At that, the driver slammed the door and drove off toward Western Avenue. When the bus was midway between Oakley Boulevard and Western Avenue, an argument began, the driver continued, between the passenger sitting to his rear and Tselios. The passenger told Tselios to remove his feet from the aisle and Tselios responded by telling the passenger to 'mind his own damned business.' Apparently the driver's testimony was that the plaintiff, too, told the man to mind his business. The pair were still arguing when the bus arrived at the Western Avenue stop seconds later. As the bus approached the stop the driver observed through his mirror a short man run from the back of the vehicle and strike either Tselios or the plaintiff. The plaintiff, Tselios, the short passenger, and the passenger who had been arguing with Tselios then began to fight. With this the driver said he began to rise from his...