# Aetitus v. Spring Valley Coal Co.

> Illinois Supreme Court · June 29, 1910 · 246 Ill. 32

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6974907

## Case

- **Full name:** Charles Aetitus, in Error v. The Spring Valley Coal Company, in Error
- **Court:** Illinois Supreme Court
- **Decided:** June 29, 1910
- **Citations:** 246 Ill. 32; 92 N.E. 579
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Cookscartwrightdunn
- **Judges:** Cartwright, Cooks, Dunn, Hand
- **Cited by:** 27 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6974907

## Opinion text

Cooks, Cartwright and Dunn, JJ., dissenting:
We do not agree with the majority that every failure on the part of a mine examiner to discover a dangerous condition in a mine is a willful violation of the statute, nor do we think that the cases- cited in the majority opinion support that doctrine. A willful violation of this statute must necessarily be a conscious or knowing violation. To hold that a mine examiner is bound to discover a dangerous condition in the mine, even though by the honest application of every known means it is impossible to- detect it at the time of the examination, and that a failure to discover such condition under such circumstances' is willful, is to read into the statute that which is not there, and is to require of a mine operator that which is impossible for him to perform. This statute is not meant to malee the operator an insurer against every accident in his mine which results from dangerous conditions, but only - requires him to cause an examination to be made by an authorized examiner, to make the required records of the examination, and to mark such places as are found, upon proper examination and the honest use of approved methods, to be dangerous. It is only a failure to make such an examination that constitutes a willful violation of the statute in respect to guarding against dangerous conditions in mines.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6974907. Public record. Not legal advice.