Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Co. v. Wallace

Citations

• 110 Ill. 114
• 1884 Ill. LEXIS 1331

Syllabus

<p>1. Negligence—contributory and comparative—of the degree of care required, under different circumstances. Although a railway company may omit the statutory duty of ringing a bell or sounding a whistle at a public road crossing, still a party claiming to recover for an injury in consequence of such omission of duty, must have used due care and caution. The negligence of the company does not absolve him from all care. The plaintiff in such case, to recover, is required to exercise such care as might be expected of prudent men generally, under like circumstances.</p> <p>2. Where it is well known to the servants of a railway company and a person injured at a road crossing, that such place is unusually hazardous, it is the duty of both parties to use more care than at ordinary crossings where the danger is not so great. In such case the servants of the company should ring the bell and sound the whistle to the full extent of the statutory requirement.</p> <p>3. If a plaintiff who is injured at a highway crossing by a railway train does omit some slight precaution for his safety, and the railway company omits all care on its part, the plaintiff will not be without remedy. If the plaintiff’s negligence is slight, and that of the company, when compared with that of the plaintiff, is gross, a recovery may be had.</p> <p>4. What is prudence and proper care under some circumstances may be negligence in others; and so, negligence in danger under some circumstances might be regarded as prudence under others. Each case must depend largely on its own facts.</p> <p>5. Same—former decision—omission of railway company to give signals at highway crossings. The rule laid down in Chicago and Alton R. R. Co. v. Elmore, 67 Ill. 178, in regard to the liability of a railway company for a personal injury caused by a neglect of the statutory duty of sounding a whistle or ringing a bell at public road crossings, has not been followed, but has been disregarded in subsequent cases, and that ca