153 N.E. 821 | Ill. | 1926
Maggie Barnes, the appellant, brought an action against the city of Chicago, the appellee, in the circuit court of Cook county, for damages, predicated upon section 5 of an act entitled "An act to suppress mob violence," approved May 16, 1905, in force July 1, 1905. (Smith's Stat. 1925, p. 938.) The declaration contained two counts. The first charged that there assembled in the city more than five persons for the unlawful purpose of offering violence to the person and property of anyone supposed to have been guilty of a violation of the law and to exercise correctional and regulative powers by violence and without lawful authority; that the mob, composed of such persons, while so assembled, did with great force and violence lynch, shoot and kill John W. Simpson, plaintiff's son, an unmarried man; that he left surviving the plaintiff, his mother and lineal heir, and that she was dependent upon him for support. In addition *205
to the allegations concerning the unlawful assemblage, the killing of Simpson by the mob and the plaintiff's dependency upon him, as set forth in the first count, it was alleged in the second that Simpson was a police officer of the city of Chicago; that he received an annual salary of $1500; that he supported his mother, the plaintiff, and that notice of the plaintiff's claim had been given the city as required by statute. The city's demurrer to the declaration was sustained. The plaintiff elected to stand by her declaration and the suit was dismissed at her costs. Upon a writ of error the Second Division of the Appellate Court for the First District held that the declaration stated a cause of action and that the demurrer should have been overruled. Accordingly the judgment was reversed and the cause was remanded. (Barnes v. City ofChicago,
At about six o'clock in the evening of July 28, 1919, a mob, consisting of a considerable number of persons, was in pursuit of a man who was running east in Thirty-first street, between State street and Wabash avenue, in the city of Chicago. John W. Simpson, a police officer, followed and endeavored to stop the mob. There was much shooting. Simpson was shot in the legs and died as the result of his injuries. He left his mother, the plaintiff, surviving, to whose support, it appears, he contributed from $20 to $65 per month. *206
Section 5 of the act in question provides: "The surviving spouse, lineal heirs, or adopted children of any such other person or persons, who, before the loss of life, were dependent for support upon any other person who shall hereafter suffer death by lynching at the hands of a mob, in any county or city in this State, may recover from such county or city damages for injury sustained by reason of the loss of life of such person, to a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars."
Death by lynching, it will be observed, is a condition essential to recovery. Unless, therefore, a person is lynched his dependent has no cause of action. The use of the word "lynching" in a statute is sufficient to define the offense, as the term is one of common knowledge. (State v. Lewis,
An essential element of each of these definitions is that the person unlawfully injured or punished was charged with or suspected of some crime. The common understanding of the term "lynching" involves such a charge or suspicion. The general rule is, that the words of a statute will be interpreted according to their common and popular acceptation and import unless that interpretation will defeat the manifest intent of the General Assembly. The legislative intent necessarily must be gathered from the words used. (Wheeler v. Wheeler,
The judgment of the Appellate Court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed. *208