Anderson v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

93 S.W. 394, 196 Mo. 442, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 219
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 22, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 93 S.W. 394 (Anderson v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co., 93 S.W. 394, 196 Mo. 442, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 219 (Mo. 1906).

Opinion

FOX, J.

There was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff in the Cooper Circuit Court, and this cause :is here upon appeal by defendant. The judgment in [446]*446this cause is predicated upon the following acts of negligence complained of in the petition filed by plaintiff:

“Plaintiff states that she is the widow of Robert Anderson, deceased. That the defendant is and was at the time hereinafter mentioned a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Missouri, and as such running and operating a railroad in said State through and from the city of Nelson, in Saline county, to the city of Blaekwater, in Cooper county; that defendant in the operation of said. railroad is and was at said time a common carrier of passengers for hire between said points.
“That on the 5th day of June, 1902, the said Robert Anderson entered into a passenger car of defendant on its said railroad at said city of Nelson, a station on said railroad, as a passenger for transportation over said railroad to said city of Blaekwater, and as such passenger was lawfully in said car which was part of and situated at or near the rear of a train of cars attacked to a locomotive headed east on said railroad. That while said Robert Anderson was a passenger on defendant’s said train as aforesaid, and while said train and locomotive was standing on defendant’s railroad track at said station of Nelson, another train of cars drawn by a locomotive also headed east and on the same railroad track as aforesaid approached at high speed and ran into the rear end of and collided with the first above-mentioned train, upon which plaintiff’s said husband was a passenger, with great force and violence, completely wrecking and demolishing the car in which the said Robert Anderson was situated, and wounding and bruising the said Robert Anderson, from the effect of which he then and there died.
“That the aforesaid ear, train of cars and locomotives at the time aforesaid belonged to and were being run, conducted and managed by officers, agents, servants and employees of the defendant, and the injury [447]*447resulting in the death of the said Eobert Anderson as aforesaid was occasioned by the negligence and unskillfulness of said officers, agents; servants and employees whilst so running, conducting and managing said car, trains of cars and locomotives.
“Wherefore plaintiff has been damaged in the sum of five thousand dollars, for which, together with costs of suit, she prays judgment against defendant.”

The answer to this petition consists of a general denial, followed by a special denial of any negligence on the part of the agents and servants of defendants, and a statement that whatever injuries plaintiff’s husband may have received, were the result of and occasioned by puré accident, without negligence on the part of the agents and servants of defendant.

The trial of this cause was had on the 29th day of January, 1903. There is practically 'no dispute as to what the testimony tended to prove in this cause. There is no controversy over the fact that Eobert Anderson was plaintiff’s husband, and there is no contention that the suit was not instituted within the statutory period, that is, six months after his death. The testimony upon the trial tended to establish substantially the following state of facts: That Eobert Anderson resided at Blackwater, a town and station on defendant’s railway; that he left Blackwater on the afternoon of June 5, 1902, on defendant’s west-bound passenger train for the city and station of Marshall on said railway; that he reached Marshall, and later on the same afternoon took passage on another of defendant’s trains returning east toward Blackwater, his home; that the latter train reached the station of Nelson between Marshall and Blackwater late on said afternoon; that the train (a mixed stock and passenger train) stopped at Nelson twenty-five or thirty minutes, loading and unloading freight, and taking on stock cars; that immediately after this train at Nelson started on its journey toward Blackwater it was run into in the [448]*448rear by another train going in the same direction, resulting in a collision and a wreck of the passenger coach of the forward train; that after the wreck rescuers found Robert Anderson in the wrecked coach, badly mangled, and that he died a few minutes after his removal from the wreck. The conductor of the train deceased was on testified that the latter paid his fare from Marshall to Nelson. It was admitted by defendant at the trial that the railway and trains mentioned were the property of the defendant, that said trains at the time of the collision were being operated by defendant’s servants, and that Robert Anderson died as the result of injuries caused by said wreck.

The evidence further showed that the train Anderson was on was a regular train, running several hours behind its-schedule time at Nelson; that according to the defendant’s regulations, it was the duty of its servants operating said train, when it stopped at Nelson, to send a signal man to the rear, and by the use of a signal flag, and by placing torpedoes on the track, warn approaching trains of the presence of this train at Nelson. The conductor of the forward train testified that he sent a brakeman back with a flag for the purpose of signalling the following train, but there was no evidence that he did signal said train. The brakeman was not present to testify at the trial. The engineer of the rear train testified that he saw no flag and heard no torpedoes as he approached Nelson, and his testimony and that of witnesses for the plaintiff showed that a few yards west of the Nelson depot the railway makes a sharp curve through a deep cut, so that an engineer going east could not see a train at the depot until he approached very close.

At the close of the evidence the defendant requested the court to give hn instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence which substantially told the jury that under the pleadings and all the evidence in the case the plaintiff was not entitled to recover and the jury [449]*449will find for the defendant. This request was denied and the court refused to give the instruction.

At the request of the plaintiff the court gave the following instructions:

“1. The jury are instructed that if they believe-from the evidence that on or about June 5,1902, Robert Anderson was a passenger on one of defendant’s trains, and that in consequence of the negligence of the defendant’s servants, agents and employees whilst running, conducting or managing said train of cars, another train of cars going in the same direction upon defendant’s said railroad ran into and collided at the station of Nelson with the car in which said Anderson was, and he was thereby killed, and that said collision occurred and his death resulted from the carelessness and negligence of defendant’s servants in running, conducting or managing said train on which he had taken passage, or the train colliding therewith, and that plaintiff is his widow, and this suit was begun within six months after his death, they will find the issue for the plaintiff and assess her damages at the sum of five thousand dollars.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 S.W. 394, 196 Mo. 442, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 219, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-missouri-pacific-railway-co-mo-1906.