Chicago West Division Railway Co. v. Becker

Citations

• 128 Ill. 545
• 21 N.E. 524
• 1889 Ill. LEXIS 929

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence—declarations of person injured—in suit to recover for the injury—whether of the res gestae. In an action against a city railway company to recover damages for personal injury to plaintiff’s intestate, a boy, causing his death, it was claimed that the boy was thrown from a car and run over. After the boy had got up and walked to the sidewalk and had sat down, he stated, in answer to a question as to what was the matter, that the conductor threw him off the car. These statements were admitted in evidence: Held, that the court erred in admitting evidence of such statements, as they were not a part of the res gestae.</p> <p>2. The declarations of a party before his death, not made at the time of the accident in which he received the injury causing his death, nor concurrently therewith, and which fail to explain or characterize the manner in which the accident occurred, are not admissible in evidence.</p> <p>3. The true inquiry is, whether the declaration is a verbal act, illustrating, explaining or interpreting other parts of the transaction o'f which it is itself a part, or is merely a history, or a part of a history, of a completed past affair. In the one case it is competent, in the other it is not.</p>