The Wesley City Coal Co. v. Healer

• Citation: 1876 WL 10453,84 Ill. 126
• Parties: THE WESLEY CITY COAL COMPANYv.ANN HEALER.
• Decision Date: 30 September 1876
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

84 Ill. 126

1876 WL 10453 (Ill.)

THE WESLEY CITY COAL COMPANY

v.ANN HEALER.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1876.

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Peoria county; the Hon. J. W. COCHRAN, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. COHRS & RIDER, for the appellant.

Messrs. PUTERBAUGH, LEE & QUINN, for the appellee.

Mr. JUSTICE DICKEY delivered the opinion of the Court:

There came into force, on the 1st day of July, 1872, a statute of the State of Illinois, by which, among other things, it was enacted that, “In all coal mines * * * in operation prior to the 1st day of July, 1872, which are worked by or through a shaft, * * * in which more than fifteen miners are employed, if there is not already * * * a communication between * * * said coal mine and some other contiguous mine, there shall be an escapement shaft, making at least two distinct means of ingress and egress for all persons * * * permitted to work in such coal mine. * * * Such escapement shaft, or other communication with a contiguous mine as aforesaid, shall be constructed in connection with every vein or stratum of coal worked in such coal mines; and the time to be allowed for such construction shall be one year for each one hundred feet in depth of such escapement shaft so to be constructed, or fractional part thereof. * * * For any injury to person or property occasioned by any wilful violations of this act, or wilful failure to comply with any of its provisions, a right of action shall accrue to the party injured, for any direct damages sustained thereby; and in case of loss of life by reason of such wilful violation, or wilful failure as aforesaid, a right of action shall accrue to the widow of the person so killed, * * * for a like recovery of damages for the injuries sustained by reason of such loss of life.”

The appellant, in November, 1874, was the owner of mines called the Hope Mines. These mines, before July, 1872, were in operation, and consisted of one main perpendicular shaft communicating with three several veins of coal, the first some seventy feet below the surface of the earth, the second some sixty-five to seventy feet lower than the first vein, and the third some one hundred and twenty feet lower than the second vein.

In November, 1874, the appellant was not working the first or upper vein, but was working both the second and third veins. There was an escapement shaft which had been sunk to the first vein, and which, by the excavations on that plane, communicated with the main shaft. There was no escapement shaft from either the second or third vein, and there was no communication from either of these veins, connecting with any contiguous mine or mines, and there never had been. The only mode of ingress and egress to or from the second and third veins was by way of the main shaft. The second vein was less than two hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and more than two years had elapsed since the statute came into force.

In November, 1874, notwithstanding the want of the required second mode of ingress and egress required by the statute, the appellant was working, in the second vein, more than fifteen men, in direct violation of the statute. Appellant was, at the same time, working a number of men in the third vein.

In this condition of affairs,...