Court Opinion

ID: 9517352
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:14:14.948064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:43:53.653894
License: Public Domain

BARRY, P. J., concurs. Mr. JUSTICE ALLOY, specially concurring: I agree that under the existing law in this State, the judgment of the Circuit Court of Peoria County is required to be affirmed. I am also aware that the issue to which I will refer, was not specifically raised by the defendant James B. Head. Under the existing law of this State, the trial court (when confronted by a specific answer to a special interrogatory to the effect that the plaintiff was guilty of some contributory negligence) was required to set aside the verdict in favor of plaintiff as against defendant Head. In view of the facts in this case, however, it is apparent that the jury made a practical application of the doctrine of comparative negligence and determined that despite the plaintiff’s negligence, the defendant Head was more responsible for the injury and that judgment should, therefore, be granted as against defendant Head. This case illustrates specifically how a determination by a jury of responsibility for the results of an accident by a defendant is required to be set aside, without inquiry into the comparative fault of the parties, on the basis of the doctrine that no recovery can be obtained in this State, if a plaintiff is guilty of any degree of negligence whatsoever. This archaic doctrine has been abolished in most of the States in this country either by judicial determination or by legislation. In characterizing the intolerable feature resulting from the absolute bar based upon contributory negligence, Dean Prosser says in The Law of Torts 443 (3d ed. 1964): “The hardship of the doctrine of contributory negligence on the plaintiff is readily apparent. It places upon one party the entire burden of a loss for which two are, by hypothesis, responsible. The negligence of the defendant has played no less a part in causing the damage; the plaintiff’s deviation from the community standard of conduct may even be relatively slight, and the defendant’s more extreme; the injured man is in all probability, for the very reason of his injury, the less able of the two to bear the financial burden of his loss; and the answer of the law to all this is that the defendant goes scott free of all liability and the plaintiff bears it all.” This result is characterized as intolerable for the obvious reason that it defeats the basic principles of doing justice as between the parties in an action for damages in a case of the character we have before us. The judges in the courts of this State have been quite aware of the inequity which results from the application of this doctrine. The consequence is that the judges of this State have recommended that a doctrine of comparative negligence be adopted in tort cases in this State to avoid such inequity. In the 1976 Annual Report of the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts to the Supreme Court, at page 22, the supreme court addresses the members of the General Assembly urging the adoption of a comparative negligence doctrine by legislation. Chief Justice Ward there points out that after thorough study of comparative negligence, the Illinois Judicial Conference Committee on Comparative Negligence concluded that the strict contributory negligence rule, now in force in this State, should be abandoned and that the comparative negligence doctrine would furnish a better standard of justice. The supreme court, in that same document, acting through Justice Ward, also recommended that the principle of contribution among joint tortfeasors should be adopted in Illinois (1976 Annual Report 23). The court suggested that legislation be enacted to cure this problem, also. Since that report and recommendation with respect to contribution among joint tortfeasors, the supreme court acted on its own responsibility without any legislation in the cases of Skinner v. Reed-Prentice Division Package Machinery Co. (1977), 70 Ill. 2d 1, Stevens v. Silver Manufacturing Co. (1977), 70 Ill. 2d 41, and Robinson v. International Harvester Co. (1977), 70 Ill. 2d 47, and there determined that action by the supreme court should be, and was, taken to eliminate inequities in the rule of contribution among joint tortfeasors previously in force in Illinois. Clearly, if we are to respond to the need for action to eliminate inequities in tort cases of the character referred to, we should, also, through the judicial system, grant relief to plaintiffs in tort actions through adoption of a doctrine of comparative negligence, which will eliminate the arbitrary rule of denying recovery to any plaintiff who is guilty of any degree of contributory negligence. Illinois is in the minority of jurisdictions in adhering to the present rule in force in this State, and the judges and virtually all of the authorities in the field of tort law have recommended that a comparative negligence doctrine be adopted in this State. In the event that nothing can or will be done in this case, we suggest that at the earliest opportunity, the courts face this important issue and take action to eliminate the inequitable rule denying recovery to a plaintiff on the basis of the presence of any degree of contributory negligence on the part of such plaintiff. Adoption of a comparative negligence standard is obviously the proper program.