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Show Contributory Negligence Is Often Misunderstood "Contributory negligence Is one of the oldest doctrines of the common law, and Is one of the most frequently resorted re-sorted to by lawyers and Judges to wreck what otherwise might he a perfect per-fect case," says a bulletin Issued by the legal department of the Chicago Motor club. "Contributory negligence is the most frequent defense interposed In automobile auto-mobile litigation, yet Its application Is frequently misunderstood by motorists. motor-ists. The meaning of the term Is that any net 0 omission or commission on the part of a driver or. owner of an automobile au-tomobile that contributes to an accident acci-dent bars that driver or owner from redress In court, ' In other words the , driver roust come Into court 'free from any neglect when' he seeks compensation compensa-tion for damages done or Injuries sustained. sus-tained. The complications that arose from the rule of comparative negligence negli-gence which at one time existed In post states but which is no longer a rule in Illinois and many other states, so confused the courts that It has been abandoned for the more workable work-able rule of contributory negligence. The fact that the person sued was guilty of negligence and even though his degree of negligence was several times more flagrant than that of the person suing, does not help the case, If the drher suing has been negligent." |