Court Opinion

ID: 9451113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:06:47.716159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:34.547809
License: Public Domain

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
A number of children were proceeding on bicycles along 47th Street in broad daylight, on their way to a public playground nearby. There is no evidence that the driver of the United States mail truck had his vision obscured in any way. The weather was clear. It is undisputed in the evidence that plaintiff, a 7-year-old boy, was looking ahead as he rode his bicycle on the south sidewalk and there is no question that he had a legal right to be on the sidewalk. The driver of the mail truck, in view of all these circumstances, turned his truck to the right, went past the south curbstone and started across the sidewalk without looking to see whether his crossing might result in a collision with someone traveling thereon. Despite the effort of the boy to turn to the right and away from the oncoming truck, he was struck and seriously injured.
The action of the district judge, which is now affirmed by this court, is now attempted to be justified by a decision in a chancery case involving a charge of undue influence asserted on a man who died testate and whose will was involved in a court contest which reached this court. Shapiro v. Rubens, 7 Cir., 166 F,2d 659, 666 (1948). It is no reflection upon our decision in Shapiro to point out that the complicated issues in such a will contest bear no remote resemblance to the clear evidence in the case at bar. No question as to credibility is presented here. The majority opinion in this case amounts to a tacit grant of immunity to a truck driver who negligently drives his vehicle across a public sidewalk where one of a group of small boys is lawfully traveling on the way to a neighborhood playground. The opinion exonerates a ruthless driver.
I would reverse and remand for a new trial.