Bailey and Another v. Hagen and Another

This accident occurred in the state of Illinois a short distance south of the Wisconsin line. All of the individuals involved
were Wisconsin residents. The plaintiff herein was a passenger in an automobile driven by John Brnak. Brnak is not a party
to the lawsuit. The automobile driven by Brnak was struck in the rear by an automobile driven by the defendant, Marcus Hagen.
This accident caused the injuries to the plaintiff. The facts are substantially undisputed, and it appears that on the morning of March 16, 1960, John Brnak, as was his custom,
was driving the plaintiff, Elsa Bailey, and three others from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to their mutual place of employment in Downey,
Illinois. Each of the passengers paid Brnak for this transportation. The accident occurred at about 7:30 a.m. The road conditions
were poor. There was a considerable amount of snow on the road. It was snowing hard, the wind was blowing, and visibility
was poor. Shortly before the accident, an unknown car pulled out of an intersection to the right of Brnak and directly in
front of him. No contact was made between the cars, but Brnak swerved his automobile and stopped on the west shoulder of the
road, with approximately one half of his automobile in the southbound lane of traffic. It appears that the Brnak car was not
disabled, and there is no explanation why he remained stopped at this location. The evidence is clear that he was stopped
in this position for at least a minute, and some of the testimony indicated that he was there as long as three minutes. The
defendant, Marcus Hagen, was traveling south in the same direction as Brnak and at some distance behind him. He stated that
he was traveling at the speed of about 30 to 35 miles per hour when he saw the taillights of the Brnak car at a distance of
about 60 to 100 feet. He could not tell whether the automobile was moving or stopped. When he became doubtful that the preceding
car was moving, he hesitated momentarily and took his foot from the accelerator. As soon as he determined that the automobile
was at a standstill, he pumped his brakes in order to avoid skidding, but he was unable to stop. He did not turn left or right,
and when he did attempt to stop the automobile, he slid into the rear end of the Brnak car, and the plaintiff was injured.