Moore v. Chicago City Railway Co., 190 Ill. App. 113 (1914)

Dec. 22, 1914 · Illinois Appellate Court · Gen. No. 20,187
190 Ill. App. 113

Margaret Moore, Plaintiff in Error, v. Chicago City Railway Company, Defendant in Error.

Gen. No. 20,187.

(Not to be reported in full.)

Error to the Municipal Court of Chicago; the Hon. Joseph SAbath, Judge, presiding. Heard in the Branch Appellate Court at the March term, 1914.

Reversed and remanded.

Opinion filed December 22, 1914.

Statement of the Case.

Action by Margaret Moore against the Chicago City Railway Company for personal injuries sustained in *114alighting from a street car. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff brings error.

Abstract of the Decision.

Street railroads, § 131 * —when verdict is against weight of evidence. Where a passenger testified that she was assisted off a street car hy the conductor and that the car started while she had only one foot on the ground and still had hold of the car handle, and she fell on her side receiving certain, bruises, and two passengers who got off the front end of the car testified that she had fallen on the street and the car suddenly stopped shortly thereafter leaving her on the ground four or five feet back of the car, and the plaintiff’s testimony was corroborated in other particulars, the verdict for the defendant is held to he against the weight of the evidence.

Plaintiff and three other passengers testified to the occurrence. Defendant had no witnesses to the res gestae. It was contended that there was such inherent improbability and conflict in the testimony given in behalf of the plaintiff that the jury were justified in rejecting her theory of the accident and may well have believed that she attempted to alight from the car before it stopped.

N. J. Shupe, for plaintiff in error.

Warren D. Bartholomew and Frank L. Kriete, for defendant in error; W. W. Gurley and J. E. Guilliams, of counsel.

Mr. Presiding Justice Barnes

delivered the opinion of the court.