Case ID: ill-app_202/html/0313-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Goodwin", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Nora Kennedy, Administratrix, Plaintiff in Error, v. City of Chicago et al., Defendants in Error.
    Gen. No. 21,262.
    (Not to he reported in full.)
    Error to the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. Chablbs M. Walkeb, Judge, presiding. Heard in the Branch Appellate Court at the October term, 1915.
    Affirmed.
    Opinion filed December 27, 1916.
    Statement of the Case.
    Action by Nora Kennedy, administratrix of the estate of John Kennedy, deceased, plaintiff, against the City of Chicago, a municipal corporation, the Belt Bailway Company of Chicago, a corporation, Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Company, a corporation, and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, a corporation, defendants, to recover damages for the death of her intestate, alleged to have resulted from the negligence of defendants in' leaving holes in a street where it was crossed by the tracks of the railroad company defendants.
    William Gillespie, for plaintiff iii error.
    Samuel A. Ettelson and Charles R. Francis, for defendant in error City of Chicago; Henry T. Chace, Jr., of counsel.
    C. G. Austin, Jr., Beverly W. Howe, M. L. Bell and A. B. Enocs, for other defendants in error.
    Abstract of the Decision.
    1. Continuance, § 31
      
      —when refusal of court to continue case is not an atuse of discretion. Denial of a motion by plaintiff’s counsel, in an action to recover damages for negligent death, for leave to withdraw a juror and continue the case, held not an abuse of the discretion of the trial court.
    2. Dismissal, nonsuit and discontinuance, § 28*—what constitutes an involuntary nonsuit. Where evidence introduced by the plaintiff lacks all the essential elements necessary to prove his right to recover, the court may cause a nonsuit to be entered in the cause, and such a nonsuit so entered.is involuntary.
    3. Dismissal, nonsuit and discontinuance, § 28*—when involuntary nonsuit in action for negligent death is authorized. In an action by the administratrix of the estate of a deceased person to recover damages for the death of her intestate, alleged to have resulted from the negligence of defendants in leaving holes in a street where it was crossed by the tracks of the railroad company defendants, evidence held so insufficient to justify a verdict against any of the defendants as to authorize an involuntary nonsuit.
    
      
      See Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number.
    
   Mr. Justice Goodwin

delivered the opinion of the court.