Bebout v. Kurn

154 S.W.2d 120, 348 Mo. 501, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 449
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedSeptember 25, 1941
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 154 S.W.2d 120 (Bebout v. Kurn) 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
Bebout v. Kurn, 154 S.W.2d 120, 348 Mo. 501, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 449 (Mo. 1941).

Opinion

*505 ELLISON, J.

Bespondent’s ward, Jo Ann Davis, six years old, was injured while riding in an automobile with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Bowler and her aunt, when the same was struck by appellants’ westbound passenger train, the Blue Bonnet, at a public road crossing in Strafford in Greene County, on September 11, 1937, about dusk. All the other occupants of the automobile were killed. The traisL had just passed eastbound passenger train, the Will Bogers. The latter train was moving on a side track and respondent’s version is that the automobile, awaiting its passage, had stopped on the main track and was there struck by the westbound train. (Throughout, we shall designate the trains by their directions.)

Bespondent recovered a judgment for $10,000. The cause was submitted on the humanitarian doctrine for negligent failure to stop the train or give an emergency warning. Appellants’ assignments of error complain: that the evidence was insufficient to warrant the submission of the case to the jury; of the improper admission of evidence; and of the giving of respondent’s instructions 1, 2, 3 and 6.

Strafford is on U. S. Highway 66, which parallels the railroad tracks about eighty feet north of the main track. The passing track is south of the main track. Two gravel roads lead off to the south from Highway 66 and cross the railroad tracks. One, called the west road, is 350 feet west of the depot. Viles filling station is at the intersection of that gravel road with Highway 66, about 130 feet north of the main railroad track. A railroad tool shed is on the right of way 295 feet west of the west gravel road crossing, and the' passing track comes off the main line some distance further west. The other gravel road, called the east road, is 460 feet east of the depot. The passing track rejoins the main line 2400 feet east of the depot, where there is an electric block signal. Beyond that some distance is a caution block signal. The track is slightly up grade to the east for 1320 feet from the depot. From a point on the west gravel road fifty feet north of the main track a pedestrian could see a westbound train for 500 feet, and from a point twenty-five feet north of the track for more than 1320 feet. The enginemen on the train could see an automobile on the track for more than half a mile.

The Bowler automobile had been at the Viles filling station, headed east. It drove out as much as 100 feet, one witness thought, in making a turn south onto the highway. Thence it proceeded west to the inter *506 section and again turned south off the pavement onto the west gravel road, and continued to the railroad track. The whole distance traveled was 350 feet or less, which would take twelve seconds or less at twenty miles per hour. Mr. Viles and two other persons at the filling station heard but did not see the collision, and estimated it occurred about two minutes after the automobile left. One of them saw the eastbound train, or some part of it between the tool house and the highway crossing. George Turnipseed, also at the Viles filling station, saw the automobile leave and stop when it got to the railroad crossing. It waited a minute or two without moving until the westbound train struck it. When the car came to a stop the eastbound train had the crossing blocked, or the engine was about at the crossing. He saw the engine of the oncoming westbound train about at the depot 350 feet east an instant before the collision.

Louise Comstock and her sister Catherine, eighteen and fourteen years old at the time, were in an automobile going north on the west road. They stopped on the south side of the track. The front of the eastbound' train was .then near the tool house 295 feet west. (At a former trial Louise had said it was only ten feet away.) The Bowler automobile, traveling south, drove up and stopped on the north side of the tracks. The train by that time was about at the crossing! As it went on over they could see under it the lighted headlamps of the Bowler automobile. It did not move. Just after the eastbound train had cleared the crossing, the engine of the westbound train hit the automobile. Tbe undisputed testimony is that it was thrown south of the main track. This was the eyewitness testimony for respondent concerning the movements of the automobile, the elapsed time and the collision.

For appellants, witness Miner testified that from his yard across from-the Viles filling station he saw the Bowler automobile leave the station and proceed to a point about fifteen feet north of the main track, and stop. At that time the eastbound engine was about half way between the tool house and the crossing, which would be about 147 feet. He could see the headlight. He also heard the whistle of the westbound train and saw the headlight shining on the track and depot, which means the train was still beyond the depot 350 feet east of the west crossing. But he went in the house and saw nothing more. Douglas Potter, at a point on Highway 66 north of the depot, saw the Bowler automobile fifteen or twenty feet from the railroad track and it was moving. The engine of the westbound train was about fifty feet east of the depot, or 400 feet from the crossing. The engineer said he first saw the automobile as his locomotive was passing the depot. It was very close to the track'and moving upon it. The fireman said the locomotive was 200 or 300 feet from crossing when he saw the automobile and that it appeared to be standing.

The eastbound train had eight cars, and was about 750 feet long. It *507 had stopped 1320 feet west of the west crossing to be switched -over to the passing track. And since there was no mail crane on that track, it had to run slowly by the depot to discharge and receive mail pouches, which latter the agent threw into the mail car door, that being the third car. Before that, one witness said, it was going ten or fifteen miles per hour, and it increased its slow speed afterward. But the fact is conceded that the train was not moving more than five to seven miles per hour in preparation for and while handling the mail. After that operation it proceeded on up to the east end of the passing track a little over 2000 feet to be switched back onto the main track.

The westbound train had eleven cars and was about 950 feet long. The engineer testified its regular speed was about 70 miles per hour. When he approached the first block it signaled caution, so he reduced the speed of the train to about twenty miles per hour. ' The block signal at the east passing track switch was red, indicating the eastbound train then entering the west end of the passing-track had: not yet cleared. But before he got to it it turned green. ■ He accelerated the speed of the train and was.going maybe forty-five miles per hour when the engine passed the depot. There was a semaphore at- the depot which was not automatic but manipulated by the telegraph operator. It, also, was clear. As already stated, he first saw the Bowler automobile about on the west crossing wheú he was passing the depot. He set the emergency brakes when the‘ engine was just past the depot, 250 or 300 feet from the-crossing and stopped the train in 950 or 1000 feet.

The engineer was corroborated as to the speed of the train opposite the depot — forty to forty-five miles per hour — by the fireman, mailman, station agent and witness McDowell, a resident of Strafford.

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Bluebook (online)
154 S.W.2d 120, 348 Mo. 501, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bebout-v-kurn-mo-1941.