(DOWNLOAD) "Knowles v. Panopoulos" by Supreme Court of Illinois # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Knowles v. Panopoulos
- Author : Supreme Court of Illinois
- Release Date : January 20, 1977
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 59 KB
Description
Richard Knowles, father of the decedent and administrator of his estate, brought this action for wrongful death against Theofilos Panopoulos. A jury found for Panopoulos, but the appellate court reversed and remanded. (Knowles v. Panopoulos (1975), 34 Ill. App.3d 90.) We allowed defendant Panopoulos' petition for leave to appeal. Decedent was a passenger on a motorcycle owned and driven by his stepbrother, Richard Rigsby, plaintiff-appellee Knowles' only occurrence witness, when he was killed as the result of a collision with Panopoulos' vehicle on September 2, 1968. At the trial in January 1974, on cross-examination and over the objection of Knowles' attorney, the court allowed into evidence the prior conviction of Rigsby for criminal trespass to a vehicle, a misdemeanor (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 38, par. 21-2). Rigsby had been convicted in March 1970. Plaintiff Knowles' counsel contended that only infamous crimes, as defined by the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 38, par. 124-1), may be introduced to impeach a witness, here a nonparty witness, in a civil proceeding; a conviction for a misdemeanor may not be introduced. Defendant Panopoulos' counsel, on the other hand, maintained that People v. Montgomery (1971), 47 Ill.2d 510, had expanded the criminal convictions which could be used to impeach a witness and was controlling here.