{
  "id": 2968830,
  "name": "Mattie P. Bourland, Appellee, v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, Appellant",
  "name_abbreviation": "Bourland v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad",
  "decision_date": "1916-04-17",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "126",
  "last_page": "129",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "199 Ill. App. 126"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 396,
    "char_count": 6674,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.545,
    "sha256": "61ce7d27f6993d4f4162b97256669a0ccb5312bd025d81c0cee0146013689dd2",
    "simhash": "1:436f3132d408c074",
    "word_count": 1139
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:51:30.955611+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "Mattie P. Bourland, Appellee, v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, Appellant."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Justice Boggs\ndelivered the opinion of the court.\n8. Appeal and error, \u00a7 1406 \u2014when verdict for damages not disturbed as being' excessive. A verdict for damages for personal injuries will not be disturbed as excessive unless against the manifest weight of evidence.\n9. Damages, \u00a7 114*\u2014when verdict for injuries to woman not excessive. A verdict for $1,000 in favor of a woman for injuries to the pelvic organs and the womb and the loss of one finger, held not excessive.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Justice Boggs"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "James M. Hamill and Charles P. Hamill, for appellant.",
      "Noleman & Smith and H. H. House, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Mattie P. Bourland, Appellee, v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, Appellant.\n(Not to be'reported in full.)\nAppeal from the Circuit Court of Washington county; the Hon. Louis Bekneeuteb, Judge, presiding. Heard in this court at the October term, 1915.\nPetition for certiorari dismissed.\nAffirmed.\nOpinion filed April 17, 1916.\nStatement of the Case.\nAction by Mattie P. Bourland, plaintiff, against the Louisville & Nashville Bailroad Company, defendant, to recover for damages for personal injuries sustained as a result of slipping on a banana peeling on the third step of one of defendant\u2019s cars as she was attempting to board the train. From a judgment for plaintiff for $1,000, defendant appeals.\nThe declaration, which consisted of two counts, alleged that defendant failed to exercise reasonable care to keep its platform and the steps of its coaches clean, and permitted banana peelings, garbage and refuse to accumulate upon its platform and the steps of one of its coaches, and that plaintiff, while attempting to board the train, was thereby caused to slip and fall, sustaining a severe nervous shock, laceration and strain of the muscles and ligaments, and that she was permanently injured.\nThe train which plaintiff attempted to board was an accommodation train consisting of a baggage car, smoker and ladies\u2019 car, starting from St. Louis and reaching Ashley about eight o\u2019clock at night. When plaintiff reached the second or third step of the car she slipped and fell in a heap to the right and somewhat backward, but not off of the steps of the car. The station at Ashley was on the north side of defendant\u2019s railroad track, and the next five stations west of Ashley were on the south side of defendant\u2019s track, and the last station on the north side of defendant\u2019s track before arriving at Ashley was Mascontah.\nThe evidence tended to show that plaintiff was more or less of a nervous temperament, and that up to some two years prior to this accident she had been in ill health, but that for two years preceding the accident her health had been good and that she had done the housework without assistance for a family of four; that subsequent to the accident she had been unable for six weeks to leave her bed and that she had not been able, up to the time of the trial, some four or six months after the accident, to walk without assistance.\nThe only evidence to dispute plaintiff in this regard were two witnesses, neighbors of plaintiff, who testified that they had observed her doing her house work, and one of them testified that they saw her get into a buggy unassisted and had seen her sweep the walks in front of her house. Two physicians examined plaintiff at the time of the injury, one called at the instance of plaintiff and the other being the physician of defendant\u2019s railroad, both of whom found an injury on plaintiff\u2019s hip, and it was thought by them when the injury first occurred that one of the lower limbs of plaintiff was some two inches shorter than the other, but the railroad physician afterwards became of the opinion on measurement that this was not true. Plaintiff\u2019s physician who had charge of her after the first examination testified that following the injury at Ashley, plaintiff suffered disorders of the pelvic organs and the womb, that one of the fingers of plaintiff was injured at the time of the accident, that it festered and a part of the bone thereafter became detached' and sloughed off.\nJames M. Hamill and Charles P. Hamill, for appellant.\nNoleman & Smith and H. H. House, for appellee.\nAbstract of the Decision.\n1. Carriers, \u00a7 476 \u2014when evidence sufficient to establish that presence of banana peeling on car steps proximate cause of injury to passenger. In an action by a passenger against a railroad company for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained as a result of slipping on a banana peeling on one of the steps of one of defendant\u2019s cars as plaintiff was attempting to board the car, where the evidence as to the existence of the banana peeling on the step was conflicting, but plaintiff\u2019s testimony was positive in character and defendant\u2019s mainly negative, evidence held sufficient to sustain a finding as to the existence of such banana peeling on the step and that it was the proximate cause of the injury to plaintiff.\n2. Carriers, \u00a7 278*\u2014what degree of care required toioards passengers. A railroad company must use the highest degree of care for the protection of a passenger consistent with the practical operation of the road.\n3. Carriers, \u00a7 476*\u2014when evidence sufficient to show knowledge of servants of existence of object on step of car. In an action by peeling while attempting to board a train, where it appeared that a passenger for damages for injuries due to slipping on a banana the next station on the same side of the railroad track was five stations distant, evidence held sufficient to sustain a finding that defendant\u2019s servants knew of the existence of the banana peeling on the steps, or should have known of it.\n4. Husband and wire, \u00a7 196*\u2014who may recover for loss of services of wife. At common law the husband only could. recover for the loss of services of the wife, and under the statutes this rule has not been entirely abrogated.\n5. Husband and wire, \u00a7 194*\u2014when giving of instructions on right of wife to recover for loss of time not reversible error. In an action by a married woman for damages for personal injuries due to slipping on car steps while attempting to board a train, an instruction on damages allowing as one of the elements thereof recoverable, \u201closs of time\u201d of plaintiff, held not reversible error in view of the evidence.\n6. Instructions, \u00a7 151*\u2014when refusal .of requested instructions not erroneous. It is not error to refuse requested instructions covered by given instructions.\n7. , Instructions, \u00a7 12*\u2014when refusal of requested instruction proper. An instruction which is lengthy, involved, and calculated to mislead the jury is properly refused.\nSee Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number,\nSee Illinois Notes Digest, Vole. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number."
  },
  "file_name": "0126-01",
  "first_page_order": 148,
  "last_page_order": 151
}