Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway Co. v. Conroy

Citations

• 68 Ill. 560

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence — opinion of expert. Where a railway company was sought to be charged with the death of a person, resulting from a defective bridge on its road, the court refused to permit the company’s bridge builder to give his opinion, as an expert, whether the accident was caused b)- defects in the bridge or not. The condition of the bridge was shown by other witnesses, they testifying to facts: Held, that the court did not err in refusing the testimony, as the condition of the bridge, at the time of the accident, was not a scientific question.</p> <p>2. Negligence—duty of railroad company as to its bridges. Railroad bridges over which trains are to pass should be constructed of the best and most durable material, as will insure the greatest safety to the traveling public. No matter of what material they are constructed, they should be subjected periodically, in each year, to the closest examination, or the company will be negligent in the discharge of its duty.</p> <p>3. Where a railroad bridge was a trestle-work, constructed of timbers fifteen years before an accident thereon resulting in the loss of life, and many of the timbers were rotten at the heart, and some of the tenons rotted off, and the company had been notified of its unsafe condition before, and had only made some slight repairs at one end only, and had made no thorough examination and repairs, it was held, that the company were negligent to such a degree as to merit the severest censure. Actual knowledge of the defects is not necessary, but it is sufficient if the company might have been informed, by the use of such diligence as the law requires.</p> <p>4. Same—injury to servant from, negligence of fellow servant. While it is true that a railroad company is not liable for an injury to a servant occasioned by the negligence of a fellow servant in the same line of employment, yet this rule has no application to an injury caused by defects in the machinery of the company, its track or bridges, which