Johnson v. Scandrett (296 Ill. App. 198, 1938)

Mr. Presiding Justice McSurely

delivered the opinion of the court.

Defendants appeal from a judgment of $25,000 entered upon a verdict of a jury in an action brought by plaintiff on account of personal injuries sustained by him while employed by defendants as a bridge carpenter. The accident happened on the morning of March 18, 1936, in the daytime of a clear sunshiny day. Plaintiff, while carrying a bridge timber to be used in one of defendants’ bridges, stepped in front of one of defendants’ passenger trains, receiving serious injuries.

Defendants own and operate a line of railroad; the Dubuque Division runs southerly on the west side of the Mississippi river through Marquette, Iowa, which is a small village on the west side of the Mississippi; here the Dubuque division is crossed at approximately right angles by the Madison Division of defendants’ road. The Dubuque Division at this point consists of a main line track with a passing track over a mile long east of the main track. The Madison Division is a single track railroad going eastward across the Mississippi river on a pontoon bridge. There is a concrete highway running north and south, about 86 feet west of and parallel to the Dubuque line; from the intersection of the Dubuque line and the Madison line to the west end of the Mississippi river bridge is 98 feet. The Marquette depot is located on the Madison line, about half a mile west of the intersection of the Madison and Dubuque lines, and two “Y” tracks connect the Dubuque line with the Madison line and the depot — one from the south and one from the north; trains on the Dubuque line stopping at the Marquette depot use these “Y” tracks to reach the depot and then back out onto the main line, resuming their journey; from the intersection of the railroads to the switch of the south £