First Springfield Bank & Trust v. Galman
Case Date: 12/31/1969
Court: Supreme Court
Docket No: 86739
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Docket No. 86739-Agenda 28-May 1999. FIRST SPRINGFIELD BANK & TRUST, as Special Adm'r of the Estate of May F. Phillippart, Deceased, Appellee, v.ANGELA S. GALMAN et al. (Howard C. Dobson et al., Appellants). Opinion filed October 21, 1999. JUSTICE RATHJE delivered the opinion of the court: The primary issue in this case is whether defendants' negligence was the proximate cause of May Phillippart's fatal injuries.We hold that it was not. BACKGROUND The relevant facts are not in dispute. Howard C. Dobson drove a tanker truck for ADM Trucking, Inc. (hereinafter, ADM).Around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 21, 1989, Dobson parked his truck on the north side of Lawrence Avenue, 41 feetfrom the intersection of English Street, in Springfield. Although Lawrence Avenue is a four-lane designated truck route onwhich parking is permitted at certain times of the day, parking is not permitted on the north side of Lawrence Avenuebetween the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Shortly after Dobson parked his truck, May Phillippart, an 18-year-old foreign exchange student from France, beganwalking south on English Street. At the intersection of English and Lawrence, Phillippart did not cross Lawrence in themarked crosswalk. Instead, she turned right and headed west on Lawrence, walking 41 feet plus the full length of the truckbefore deciding to cross. When she reached the front of Dobson's parked truck at mid-block, Phillippart entered LawrenceAvenue, walked to the front driver's side of the truck, and waited for traffic to clear so that she could cross to south side ofthe street. After taking 1 |