Negligence: Guest Statutes: Proximate Cause

The deceased was fatally injured while riding as a guest in defendant's truck. In the course of the action for damages brought by the administratrix, the court instructed that "if you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the driver of the truck was guilty of willful and wanton misconduct . . . and that as a consequence thereof the accident occurred, and further, that such conduct contributed to the death of plaintiff's intestate," then the jury should find for the plaintiff. Verdict was for the plaintiff and defendant appealed. Held, that the instruction was erroneous because it allowed the jury to find for the plaintiff upon proof that the acts of the driver merely contributed to the death and did not require a finding of proximate cause. Denton v. Midwest Dairy Products Corp., 284 Ill. App. 279, 1 N. E. (2d) 807 (1936).