Court Opinion

ID: 9722197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:20:03.699242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:31.808381
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN dissenting: Essentially, the question in this case seems to me to be whether the railroad and the defendants Kenworthy and McDowell were joint tort feasors, or whether the railroad’s conduct constitutes merely passive negligence so as to permit of indemnification. In Miller v. DeWitt, 37 Ill.2d 273, 226 N.E.2d 630, the Illinois Supreme Court observed that Illinois does not allow contribution among joint tort feasors but that it does allow a passively negligent tort feasor to obtain indemnification from an actively negligent tort feasor. The history of this judicial rule is thoroughly discussed in Sargent v. Interstate Bakeries, Inc., 86 Ill.App.2d 187, 229 N.E.2d 769. The railroad’s conduct in this case is to be measured by the acts and doings of its employees — the train crew — and that train crew knew about the truck obstruction and had known about it or similar obstructions for a period of several months. To now say that the knowledge of the train crew is not knowledge of the railroad and at the same time that you will measure the railroad’s culpability by measuring the conduct of the train crew is totally unrealistic. The trial court filed an extensive memorandum opinion in this case in support of its conclusion that the plaintiff here sought contribution among joint tort feasors. The trial court determined that in this case the plaintiff had discovered the dangerous condition and had done nothing to remedy it. The trial court found and the evidence is to the effect that the members of the train crew knew of the danger and no one had made any effort to correct it. After discovery of the danger, acquiescence in the continuation of the condition is not passive negligence within the contemplation of indemnity. I would affirm.