(Download) "Chmelik v. Vana" by Supreme Court of Illinois * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Chmelik v. Vana
- Author : Supreme Court of Illinois
- Release Date : January 29, 1964
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 75 KB
Description
This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of Cook County holding that the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act was a bar to a common-law action brought by plaintiff, William Chmelik, to recover for personal injuries allegedly resulting from the negligence of Thomas Vana, the defendant. Constitutional questions raised and passed upon in the trial court give us jurisdiction to entertain the direct appeal. Undisputed facts reveal that plaintiff and defendant were both employees of the Speedway Manufacturing Company at a plant in northern Illinois, and that both men customarily drove to and from work and parked their vehicles in a parking lot provided by their employer for the use of its employees. At the conclusion of the work day on October 18, 1961, as plaintiff was walking across the parking lot to his car, he was struck by the automobile of defendant, who was also leaving work, and severely injured. On such date the parties and their employer were operating under and subject to the Illinois Workmen's Compensation Act, section 5(a) of which provided in pertinent part: ""No common law or statutory right to recover damages from the employer or his employees for injury or death sustained by any employee while engaged in the line of his duty as such employee, other than the compensation herein provided, shall be available to any employee who is covered by the provisions of this Act, * * *."" (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1961, chap. 48, par. 138.5(a); emphasis supplied.) We have construed this section to mean that a common-law action by an employee against a negligent co-employee is precluded if the parties come within the act and the accidental injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. O'Brien v. Rautenbush, 10 Ill.2d 167; Rylander v. Chicago Short Line Railway Co. 17 Ill.2d 618.