Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway Co. v. Duggan

Citations

• 109 Ill. 537
• 1884 Ill. LEXIS 1458

Syllabus

<p>1. Attorneys’ Fees—in suits against railroad corporations—notice. The statute making a railway corporation liable to the owner of animals injured or killed on its track when it has failed to make and keep in repair fences, etc., and also for reasonable attorney’s fees, is notice to such corporation, when sued for such an injury, that such attorney’s fees will be claimed, and it is not necessary it should have any other notice.</p> <p>2. Same—when the liability accrues—and how the recovery may be had. The liability of a railway company for attorney’s fees in an action to recover for an injury to animals, growing out of its neglect to fence its track, etc., under the act of 1879, arises at the same instant with its liability for damages, and such fee may be assessed in the same suit with the damages, the law not favoring a multiplicity of actions.</p> <p>3. Same—constitutionality of the act. The act of 1879, making railway corporations liable for attorney’s fees in addition to the damage sustained by the owners of stock by the killing or injuring the same, through a neglect to fence their roads and keep the same in repair, is not open to the objection of being special legislation, in singling out one class of corporations alone. The statute may be upheld as being in the nature of a penalty for non-compliance with the duty of fencing, and as a police regulation, not only for the protection of animals, but for the public welfare, and as a measure for the safety of travel on railroads.</p> <p>4. As a police regulation for the promotion of the public safety in travel by railroads, the legislature may well require the fencing of such roads, and provide penalties for securing the performance of such requirement.</p>