Bass v. Washington-Kinney Co‪.‬

Plaintiffs, husband and wife, brought this action to recover damages for personal injuries and loss of consortium, respectively, sustained as a result of plaintiff-husband's (Bass) assistance in the unloading of a forklift delivered by defendant Washington-Kinney Company 1 to Bass' place of employment. After a trial by jury, judgment was entered for defendant and against plaintiffs, with costs and charges assessed against plaintiffs. On appeal, plaintiffs contend: (1) the trial court applied an erroneously narrow concept of proximate cause which misled the jury; (2) the trial court improperly allowed defense counsel to force Bass to judge the veracity of a witness; (3) the trial court's comments to the jury regarding plaintiffs' unexpected completion of their case were prejudicial to plaintiffs; (4) the trial court erred in refusing to admit Bass' personnel records; (5) the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence; (6) the trial court erroneously allowed unconnected testimony regarding prior unrelated injuries suffered by Bass; (7) the trial court erroneously allowed testimony regarding workers' compensation; (8) defense counsel's failure to disclose its expert witnesses prejudiced plaintiffs; (9) the trial court erroneously allowed testimony regarding Bass' unrelated hospitalizations; and (10) the trial court erroneously admitted evidence regarding Bass' alcoholism. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. The record establishes that at the time of the accident, Bass was employed by the Sovereign Hotel, 1040 West Granville, Chicago, as a building engineer. As part of his employment responsibilities, Bass performed electrical and plumbing work as well as miscellaneous maintenance tasks. On April 19, 1976, Bass was requested by his boss, Fred Wertymer, to help unload a forklift from a pickup truck which was parked in the alley next to the hotel. The hotel did not have a loading dock. When Bass arrived in the alley, four other employees plus Wertymer were already there and the forklift was on the truck bed, near the tailgate. The driver indicated that the forklift had been incorrectly loaded onto the truck. Generally, for a ground delivery, the forks on the lift would face the rear of the truck so that it could be driven down the tailgate ramp. In this case, however, it had been loaded with the forks facing the front of the truck.