{
  "id": 1598181,
  "name": "Dolores G. Passarella, Individually and as Guardian and Next Best Friend of Raymond Michael Passarella, et al., Minors, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Board of Trustees of the Firemen's Pension Fund of the Village of Melrose Park, Illinois, Defendant-Appellant",
  "name_abbreviation": "Passarella v. Board of Trustees of Firemen's Pension Fund",
  "decision_date": "1969-03-05",
  "docket_number": "Gen. No. 51,654",
  "first_page": "448",
  "last_page": "452",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "106 Ill. App. 2d 448"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "217 NE2d 482",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "year": 1966,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "70 Ill App2d 132",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. App. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        2588583
      ],
      "year": 1966,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-app-2d/70/0132-01"
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    {
      "cite": "132 NE2d 579",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "year": 1956,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "9 Ill App2d 330",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. App. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        5151551
      ],
      "year": 1956,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-app-2d/9/0330-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "142 NE2d 5",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "year": 1957,
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "11 Ill2d 227",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        2785749
      ],
      "year": 1957,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/11/0227-01"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 515,
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    "pagerank": {
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      "percentile": 0.5138936671597456
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    "sha256": "6394c1242994e03ade300fdb987c96124ae5903d843ff6406ef22787b4ec1263",
    "simhash": "1:7473f54f76749cc1",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T20:31:30.839474+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "DRUCKER, P. J. and ENGLISH, J., concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "Dolores G. Passarella, Individually and as Guardian and Next Best Friend of Raymond Michael Passarella, et al., Minors, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Board of Trustees of the Firemen\u2019s Pension Fund of the Village of Melrose Park, Illinois, Defendant-Appellant."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "MR. JUSTICE STAMOS\ndelivered the opinion of the court.\nThis is an appeal by the Board of Trustees of the Firemen\u2019s Pension Fund of the Village of Melrose Park, from a judgment order entered in the Circuit Court of Cook County, reversing the action of the said Board of Trustees denying plaintiff\u2019s application for a widow\u2019s and children\u2019s pension, under the provision of the Firemen\u2019s Pension Fund Statute, Ill Rev Stats, c 108\u00bd, \u00a7 4-114 (1965), which pertinent provision reads as follows : \u201cIf a fireman dies in the fire service as a result of any illness or accident which had its inception while he was in such service with pay . . .\nThe deceased, Raymond M. Passarella, was a certified full-time fireman in the Village of Melrose Park, Illinois and was a fireman within the meaning of the applicable Firemen\u2019s Pension Fund Statute and made the necessary contributions to said Pension Fund as required under the statute.\nThe record reveals that the deceased came to his death as the result of a bullet wound of the lungs. The bullet was fired from a revolver held in the hand of Mrs. Joan Thompson while deceased was attempting to commit burglary or robbery in her home in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on January 27,1964.\nPlaintiff relies upon Taylor v. John Hancock Ins. Co., 11 Ill2d 227, 142 NE2d 5 (1957), affirming, 9 Ill App2d 330, 132 NE2d 579 (1956), wherein an insurance policy provided that death benefits would be payable if the death occurred through \u201caccidental means\u201d directly and independently of all other causes. In that case the deceased with others conspired to set fire to a residence to collect fire insurances, but while the deceased was in the house spreading gasoline, there was an explosion and fire due to the premature ignition of the fumes by a pilot light the conspirators overlooked. It was ruled that death ensued as a result of an accident, since \u201cit could not be seriously contended that the deceased intended to burn himself to death. That part was accidental.\u201d\nDefendant\u2019s theory is \u201cthe deceased fireman, Passarella, was killed while in the act of committing burglary, assault and robbery and that his death was not the result of an accident and therefore is not pensionable, under the provisions of the Firemen\u2019s Pension Act.\u201d\nIn Illinois, the courts have adopted a liberal attitude in their interpretations of \u201caccident\u201d in resolving litigation for the recovery of insurance proceeds or pensions. In effect \u201caccidental result\u201d and \u201caccidental means\u201d are defined as something which happens by chance or fortuitously, without intention or design and which is unexpected, unusual and unforeseen. Taylor v. John Hancock Ins. Co., supra.\nThe deceased fireman embarked upon a course of conduct that resulted in attempting to gain entrance to a private dwelling by the device of a ruse. Failing in that, he persisted and accomplished entry by the use of a stolen garage door key that afforded him access to the interior of the dwelling. While armed with a loaded revolver and masked to preclude any possibility of subsequent identification he proceeded up the staircase to the locked bedroom door and with force and violence hurled himself against it and made his entrance in the bedroom where he was shot once and again when he endeavored to disarm Mrs. Thompson while hitting her on the head with his gun.\nIn Henry v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 70 Ill App2d 132, 217 NE2d 482 (1966), this court reversed a $5,000 judgment against the defendant, under a \u201cdeath through accidental means\u201d provision of a group policy. The decedent in that case in the company of his common-law wife, Hattie Moffitt, visited her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Young, where they engaged in an argument and decedent drew a knife and was going to cut Miss Moffitt\u2019s throat. Mr. Young ordered the decedent to leave the home and \u201cgo out and cool yourself and come back after you cool yourself off.\u201d The decedent before departing said \u201cListen, I\u2019m going downstairs and open my car and get my gun and I\u2019m going to come up here and kill everybody in here and you\u2019ll be jumping out these windows.\u201d The decedent promptly returned armed with a sawed-off shotgun (which later was discovered to be unloaded) and said \u201cI am killing everybody here,\u201d at which moment Mrs. Young grabbed him at the door and there was scuffling. Mr. Young got his gun out of a drawer and observed that Mrs. Young was thrown aside by the decedent against a window causing her to cut her arm. At this moment, Mr. Young testified, \u201cWhen she fell he was an open target, I just shot him .... He had the gun, just I shot before he could get himself set to shoot me. . . . [The gun was] pointed right toward me, . . . and he said Tapa Young, I\u2019m going to kill you.\u2019 ... I shot in a hurry and tried to hit him first.\u201d\nThe Henry case and the case at bar are analogous in that both decedents were engaged in committing crimes, in both instances felonies. Each decedent was armed and each placed their respective adversaries in the legal and factual position of defending to the point that the taking of the decedents\u2019 lives was justified. Criminal Code of 1961, Ill Rev Stats, c 38, \u00a7 7-1 (1965) .\nWhen the decedent broke through the locked bedroom door armed with a gun and his face masked, Mrs. Thompson fired her first shot. She fired her second shot after the decedent had thrown her to the floor and was striking her about a dozen times on the head with his gun. The acts of Mrs. Thompson were a natural and probable consequence of the decedent\u2019s conduct.\nThe rule adopted by this court in Henry v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., supra at page 140, is applicable to the facts in this case:\n\u201cWe think the rule to be applied to the facts of this case is set forth in ALR2d, Vol 26, p 402:\n\u201cIt has generally been held that where an insured, armed with a deadly weapon, makes an attack upon another, his resulting injuries will not be accidental even though the person attacked was unarmed or not known to the insured to be armed, since the resistance which the insured must be charged with expecting will be that which the person attacked is justified in using, rather than that which he has the apparent capacity to make.\u201d\nWe conclude from the record that the decedent\u2019s death was not accidental, but an obvious natural and probable consequence of his conduct that was reasonably foreseeable. For the reasons given, the instant judgment is reversed.\nJudgment reversed.\nDRUCKER, P. J. and ENGLISH, J., concur.\n7-1. Use of Force in Defense of Person\nA person is justified in the use of force against another when and to the extent that he reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or another against such other\u2019s imminent use of unlawful force. However, he is justified in the use of force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm only if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or another, or the commission of a forcible felony. 1961, July 28, Laws 1961, p 1983, \u00a7 7-1.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "MR. JUSTICE STAMOS"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Guerine & Guerine, of Melrose Park (Guy C. Guerine, of counsel), for appellant.",
      "Michael F. Ryan, of Chicago (Richard F. McPartlin, of counsel), for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Dolores G. Passarella, Individually and as Guardian and Next Best Friend of Raymond Michael Passarella, et al., Minors, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Board of Trustees of the Firemen\u2019s Pension Fund of the Village of Melrose Park, Illinois, Defendant-Appellant.\nGen. No. 51,654.\nFirst District, Fourth Division.\nMarch 5, 1969.\nGuerine & Guerine, of Melrose Park (Guy C. Guerine, of counsel), for appellant.\nMichael F. Ryan, of Chicago (Richard F. McPartlin, of counsel), for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0448-01",
  "first_page_order": 454,
  "last_page_order": 458
}