Panelle v. Chicago Transit Authority
Decision Date | 24 November 1964 |
Docket Number | No. 38621,38621 |
Citation | 31 Ill.2d 560,202 N.E.2d 484 |
Parties | Ella Louise PANELLE, Appellant, v. CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Appellee. |
Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Royal E. Spurlark, Jr., Chicago, for appellant.
William J. Lynch, William S. Allen, Paul Denvir and Jerome F. Dixon, Chicago, for appellee.
A jury in the circuit court of Cook County returned a verdict in favor of the defendant in an action brought by Ella Louise Panelle against the Chicago Transit Authority to recover damages for injuries alleged to have been suffered in a collision with a C.T.A. bus. The trial judge allowed the plaintiff's motion for a new trial. The defendant appealed, and the Appellate Court reversed the order granting a new trial. (47 Ill.App.2d 119, 197 N.E.2d 501.) This court allowed leave to appeal.
At the trial the attorney for the defendant made the following remarks in his argument to the jury:
The plaintiff objected to these remarks when they were made, and the objection was sustained. There was no request that the jury be instructed to disregard them, and no instruction to that effect was given.
The trial judge granted the new trial because he was of the opinion that the remarks about the volume of claims against the defendant and the defendant's ability to pay them were prejudicial. He said: 'There is no room in final argument for inability of the defendant to pay, or other extraneous matters on claims pending outside, in this particular case.' The appellate court concluded that the trial judge had misinterpreted the remarks, and that ...
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Holt v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.
...of the Illinois Supreme Court in Panelle v. Chicago Transit Authority, 31 Ill.2d 560, 202 N.E.2d 484 (1964), to be close in point. In Panelle, the Court held that the following remarks by counsel were improper and prejudicial and warranted the granting of a new [I]f we cannot decide what ca......
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Ruffiner v. Material Service Corp.
...Finally, the trial judge was in a better position to assess prejudicial impact upon the jury (see Panelle v. Chicago Transit Authority (1964), 31 Ill.2d 560, 562, 202 N.E.2d 484), and he denied defendant's post-trial motion based on these references, stating that he doubted the jury perceiv......
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Kolakowski v. Voris
...and growing; knowledge is increasing. You can't set it back." The trial court agreed with plaintiff that Panelle v. Chicago Transit Authority (1964), 31 Ill.2d 560, 202 N.E.2d 484, and Torrez v. Raag support the contention that this argument is improper and entitles plaintiff to a new trial......
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Lake County Forest Preserve Dist. v. Continental Illinois Nat. Bank & Trust Co. of Chicago
...may constitute reversible error. (Panos v. McMahon, 23 Ill.App.3d 776, 786, 320 N.E.2d 185 (1974). Cf. Panelle v. Chi. Transit Authority, 31 Ill.2d 560, 202 N.E.2d 484 (1964); Hickey v. Chicago Transit Authority, 52 Ill.App.2d 132, 139--140, 201 N.E.2d 742 (1964); Wellner v. New York Life I......