O'Meara v. Crane Co., 209 Ill. App. 28 (1918)

Feb. 12, 1918 · Illinois Appellate Court · Gen. No. 6,528
209 Ill. App. 28

James O’Meara, Appellee, v. Crane Company, Appellant.

Gen. No. 6,528. (Not to be reported in full.)

Appeal from the Circuit Court of La Salle county; the Hon. Edgar Eldbedge, Judge, presiding.

Heard in this court at the October term, 1917.

Affirmed.

Opinion filed February 12, 1918.

Statement of the Case.

Action by James O’Meara, plaintiff, against Crane Company, defendant, before a justice of the peace to recover damages for injuries to plaintiff’s two horses loaned to one Miss A. L. Preston, claimed to be con*29ducting a sanitarium for defendant. From a judgment for the plaintiff for $200 on appeal from a like judgment, defendant appeals.

Abstract of the Decision.

Corporations, § 355 * —when evidence shows corporation to he bailee of horses. Evidence held sufficient to warrant the finding that the defendant company was bailee of plaintiff’s horses, in an action to recover damages for injuries to them while loaned to a person whom plaintiff claimed was engaged in conducting a sanitarium for defendant, as against the latter’s contention that the sanitarium was not conducted by it, hut by a third person who furnished all the funds and who employed the person upon whom process was served, similar transactions previously having been recognized as company business and no objection having been made that the person on whom process was served was not an officer of the company.

Summons was returned served on the corporation by leaving a copy with A. L. Preston, superintendent, other officers, naming them, not found in the county. The corporation appeared and defended on the merits without objecting to the service on the ground that A. L. Preston, superintendent, was not an officer of the corporation, but offered evidence that A. L. Preston was employed by one E. T. Crane, Jr., and not by defendant.

Cornelius Beardon, for appellant.

Butters & Clark, for appellee.

Mr. Presiding Justice Carnes

delivered the opinion of the court.