delivered the opinion of the court:
Leave to appeal having been granted, the appellant, the city of East Moline, is asking that we reverse two judgments against it, one in favor of Matilda Johnston, individually, and one in her favor as executrix of the estate of Dr. James P. Johnston, deceased. The judgments were obtained in the circuit court of Rock Island County and affirmed by the Appellate Court. Motions for directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict were made by appellant in the lower court but were denied. There was another defendant below but a severance was granted and the case proceeded against appellant, alone.
The principal point urged for determination is whether or not the municipality, in the construction, maintenance and operation of automatic electric traffic signals, was engaged in a governmental function or in a corporate or proprietary one. The appellant contends it is not liable because the acts and omissions complained of occurred in the exercise óf its governmental functions, whereas the respondent takes the view that the city was engaged in corporate duties for which it must respond in damages for its negligent conduct. Appellant also contends that the negligence alleged was not the proximate cause of the injury.
February 23, 1945, a collision between two automobiles resulting in the injuries complained of occurred at the intersection of Seventh Street and Seventeenth Avenue in the city of East Moline. At this point the former street runs north and south while the other runs east and west. Since 1928 the traffic moving over this intersection in "both directions has been controlled by electric automatic traffic signals which displayed at regular intervals red, amber and green lights. Traffic lights were located on each corner of the intersection.
February 18, 1945, a standard supporting the traffic lights on the northwest corner of the intersection was knocked down and broken, taking it entirely out of operation. The city hall was but a short distance away and officers of the city learned that the standard was rendered useless soon after the occurrence and a record thereof was made. The standard was not replaced until March 3, following, although the city ordered the repairs promptly. The other three sets of signals were permitted to operate during the time the northwest signal was gone, but no control was exercised over the traffic moving west on Seventeenth Avenue, being that which the absent signal would have controlled.
February 23, 1945, at about 10 :oo P.M., Matilda Johnston and her husband, the deceased, were riding south on Seventh Street in East Moline. ITe was driving the automobile and as they approached the intersection of Seventh Street with Seventeenth Avenue the traffic signal controlling their movement turned green and was still green as they entered the intersection traveling at about twenty miles per hour. The standard on the northwest corner, prior to its destruction, faced the east and controlled the traffic traveling west on Seventeenth Avenue. The standard on the southwest corner faces north and controls traffic going south on Seventh Street. A visor over each of the reflectors throws the light out into the street it faces but obscures the light to one traveling at right angles on the intersecting street.
Seventeenth Avenue is a main street through the city and carries a heavy volume of traffic, the westbound of which was without signal control at this intersection while the northwest standard was out of operation. From February 18 to the time of the accident in question a number of minor accidents occurred at this intersection and a number of collisions were narrowly avoided.
Immediately before the accident in question an automobile owned by Lester Thompson, driven by his son James L. Thompson, was proceeding west on Seventeenth Avenue. As it approached the intersection with Seventh Street there was no signal whatever controlling traffic in that direction. It entered the intesection at a speed of approximately twenty-five miles per hour, the driver not seeing the car of the deceased until it was too late to avoid a collision. The right front of the Thompson car came in contact with the left front of the Johnston car, throwing Johnston to the pavement. As he lay there unconscious another car, traveling west on Seventeenth Avenue, with no signals controlling its movement, ran through the intersection and across both of Johnston’s legs. He died June 10, 1945, as a result of the injuries received in this collision.
It will be seen from the above that the deceased was, by the green light controlling his movement, invited into and through the intersection without any effort being made by appellant to protect him from cross traffic. During the five and one-half days prior to the accident all like traffic moving over this intersection was subjected to the same hazard. It was indeed probable, under the conditions existing at this intersection during that period, that collisions would occur. The city was charged with knowledge of this fact but did nothing to cure the evil. As was said by the Appellate Court in its affirming opinion: “It was only a question of time under the conditions which the municipality permitted to exist at this intersection, until a serious accident happened.”
We believe it was negligence for appellant to leave this intersection partly controlled and partly uncontrolled by traffic signals in the manner it did and that its negligence was the proximate cause of the injury. We said in Neering v. Illinois Central Railroad Co.
An intervening and efficient cause is a new and independent force which breaks the causal connection between the original wrong and the injury and itself becomes the direct and immediate cause of the injury. (Pullman Palace Car Co. v. Laack,
Can the city evade responsibility for this injury on the theory that its acts and omissions were in the exercise of its governmental function? There is no controversy concerning the material facts as above enumerated. A municipality is not liable in damages for injuries to persons resulting from the negligence of its agents and servants while in the exercise of its governmental functions, (Le-Pitre v. Chicago Park Dist.
There was no statute requiring appellant to construct and maintain automatic signal devices at the intersection in question. (Cahill Illinois Rev. Stat. 1927, chap. 95a, secs. 26 and 33, pars. 27 and 34; Ill. Rev. Stat. 1943, chap. 95^, sec. 30, par. 127.) Its action in this connection was voluntary. It had the power to provide for them if in its discretion they were necessary, but it was not required to do so. There is no claim that appellant was negligent in the exercise of its discretion to provide such system, or in the original construction of it. Whether in those matters it was in the exercise of a governmental function or a corporate duty is not, therefore, before us. The question of what the city did or permitted at the intersection, in the matter of controlling or not controlling traffic after the northwest standard was removed, is before us, and whether or not its acts and omissions in that regard were in the exercise of a governmental function or a corporate duty must be decided.
As early as City of Chicago v. Powers,
A municipal corporation acts judicially or exercises discretion when it selects and adopts a plan in the making of public improvements, but as soon as it begins to carry out that plan it acts ministerially and is bound to see that the work is done. in a reasonably safe and skillful manner. Johnston v. City of Chicago,
A rule determining when a municipality is exercising a public or governmental function as distinguished from a strictly corporate duty is difficult to formulate. It has been said more than once that all that can be done with safety is to determine each case as it arises. See Johnston v. City of Chicago,
It appears that appellant was specially benefited by the signal system, along with the public generally. The evidence shows that Seventeenth Avenue carried heavy traffic. The traffic on Seventh Street was also heavy and consisted mainly of travel between the business and residence districts of the city. It no doubt was difficult to enter or cross Seventeenth Avenue at the intersection. Being unable to cross readily, traffic would necessarily accumulate and congest in the city streets, whereas if it were intermittently protected in its movements across Seventeenth Avenue the congestion would not occur in so great volume. Congestion of automobile traffic in a street may lead to delay, inconvenience and damage to citizens.
We said in Roumbos v. City of Chicago,
Appellant cites cases in many foreign jurisdictions where municipalities have avoided liability under similar facts because the acts complained of were held to have occurred in the exercise of a governmental function. Most of the cited cases are set forth in the opinion of the Appellate Court (
In our opinion, both the circuit and the Appellate courts were right in their decisions and the judgments are affirmed.
Judgments affirmed.