{
  "id": 2673766,
  "name": "The Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway Co. v. The People, etc., for use, etc.",
  "name_abbreviation": "Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway Co. v. People",
  "decision_date": "1876-01",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "141",
  "last_page": "143",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "81 Ill. 141"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill.",
    "id": 8772,
    "name": "Illinois Supreme Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 232,
    "char_count": 3700,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.508,
    "pagerank": {
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      "percentile": 0.8518448372858803
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    "sha256": "17adaaa571aaa2e56df1ef93b9924e74f29e539e2baad4cb0c0f15c12d576ba8",
    "simhash": "1:a01bbd0796117910",
    "word_count": 643
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:06:43.418924+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "The Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway Co. v. The People, etc., for use, etc."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Justice Sheldon\ndelivered the opinion of the Court:\nThis suit was brought to recover from the railway company certain penalties, for alleged violation of section 52 of Revised Statutes of 1874. (Rev. Stat. 1874, p. 810.)\nSection 52 prohibits all railroad corporations from obstructing any public road or highway, by stopping trains or leaving cars standing on any crossing except for the purpose of receiving passengers, etc.\nThe 53d section provides as follows:\n\u201c Every engineer or conductor violating the provisions of the preceding section shall, for each offense, forfeit the sum o\u00ed not less than $10 nor more than $100, to be recovered in an action of debt, in the name of the People of the State of Illinois, for the use of any person who may sue for the same, and the corporation on whose road the offense is committed shall be liable for the like sum.\u201d\nThe plaintiff, in this case, sued for twenty-five alleged violations of the above section 52.\nThe question raised on the record is simply one of the construction of the act.\nIt is contended, on the part of the plaintiff in error, that\u2014 as no specific sum is fixed by the act, but the engineer or conductor is made liable for the sum of not less than $10 nor more than $100, and the corporation is made liable for \u201c the like sum \u201d\u2014the true interpretation is, that the railroad company shall be liable for the same fine inflicted on its servant and no more; that this is required to satisfy the words \u201c the like sum; \u201d that they refer to a 'sum certain \u2014 an ascertained amount actually adjudged against the offending servant, and not to that range of sums embraced between the limits of the fine permitted by the section; that the standard by which the liability of the company is to be measured can only be determined by the conviction of the servant who, in fact, violates the law\u2014and, lienee, that such conviction\" of the servant is a condition precedent to the conviction of the company, in order to ascertain \u201c the like sum,\u201d which it is to pay.\nAfter an attentive consideration of the argument in its favor which has heen presented, we are unable to accede to the correctness of this construction of the statute. The intention of the statute, as we read it, is to subject the engineer, conductor, and the corporation, indifferently, to the fine prescribed of not less than \u00a710 nor more than \u00a7100, for a violation of the provisions of the act; that first declaring that the engineer or conductor should forfeit a sum of not less than $10 nor more than \u00a7100, and then that the corporation should be liable \u201cfor the like sum,\u201d meant no more than that the corporation should be liable for the like sum for which the engineer or conductor was liable; and not that the corporation should be liable for the like sum for which the engineer or conductor had been convicted and adjudged to pay.\nThe judgment will be affirmed.\nJudgment affirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Justice Sheldon"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Messrs. Hay, Greene & Littler, for the plaintiff in error.",
      "Messrs. Patten & Lanphier, for the defendants in error."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "The Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway Co. v. The People, etc., for use, etc.\nStatute construed\u2014creating penalty against railway companies and servants. The intention of the statute, sections 52 and 53, R. S. 1874, p. 810, is, to subject the engineer, conductor and the railway corporation, indifferently, to the fine prescribed of not less than \u00a710 nor more than \u00a7100, for obstructing highways, by stopping trains or leaving cars standing on any crossing, and not that the corporation shall be liable for the like sum for which the engineer or conductor shall have been convicted.\nWrit oe Error to the Circuit Court of Sangamon county; the Hon. Charles S. Zane, Judge, presiding.\nMessrs. Hay, Greene & Littler, for the plaintiff in error.\nMessrs. Patten & Lanphier, for the defendants in error."
  },
  "file_name": "0141-01",
  "first_page_order": 141,
  "last_page_order": 143
}