Citations
- 61 Ill. App. 647
Full opinion text
Mr. Justice Lacey
delivered the opinion oe the Court.
This wa,s an action on the case for alleged damages resulting from the fall of appellee on an alleged defective sidewalk of the appellant. The accident occurred on October 17, 1893. The cause was tried by a jury on the declaration and plea of the general issue resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee for $3,000. The motion for anew trial by appellant was overruled and it appealed to this court. Two grounds only are assigned for error, first, that there was no negligence on the part of the appellant contributing to the injury, and no notice either actual or constructive to it of the defect in the sidewalk where the injury occurred; second, that the alleged disorders of the appellee are largely feigned and that the damages are grossly excessive. The points together amount to a claim on part of appellant, that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. There is no complaint of any instructions being given or modified by the court to the injury of the appellant.
The only testimony in regard to the bad condition of the sidewalk, on the part of the appellee, was given by the witnesses Q. D. JBently, Horace Eoot, L. A. Malonee and Jacob Jacobson, and to refute it on the part of the appellant was the testimony of Thomas J. Adams, the street commissioner. The testimony of the witnesses for the appellee, showed that the accident occurred at the intersection of Main and Eighth streets, on the east side of Eighth and south side of Main street. The fall occurred by reason of the daughter of appellee, while they were walking along on the sidewalk, stepping on the end of a loose board, causing the other end to fly up and hit appellee and trip her, when she fell partly on her left side and knees on the sidewalk, and being a portly, heavy Avoman, she Avas badly shocked—was unable for a time to speak or raise up. The evidence tended to shoAV that appellee’s injuries are permanent; that she is partially helpless, unable to use her left arm and hands, and also unable to use her leg from her left side, except she could perform some movement with it; and could not articulate distinctly; that there Avas paralysis, attributable to the fall on the sideAvalk; that those conditions Avill, to a considerable degree, be permanent; that appellee had artritis of the hip joint, i.