Blackwell v. Hill

76 Mo. App. 46
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 30, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 76 Mo. App. 46 (Blackwell v. Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blackwell v. Hill, 76 Mo. App. 46 (Mo. Ct. App. 1898).

Opinion

SMITH, P. J.

STAThMENT. Aetion to recover damages for personal injuries. The facts of the case, as disclosed by the evidence, are these: A dead elm tree, ten inches in diameter, which had stood on the strip of ground situate between the sidewalk and the curb stone of a certain street in defendant city, had fallen and the trunk thereof occupied such a position in the said strip that it slightly encroached upon the sidewalk, while a prong, the end of which was broken off, projected over such sidwalk some eighteen inches. The plaintiff resided in a rented house situate on a lot abutting on the street at the point where the tree was lying. One evening after nightfall Ereell, the infant son of plaintiff, in passing along the sidewalk at the place where the tree was lying, on his way to join some playmates, stumbled against the projecting prong and fell, breaking his arm. A physician who examined the boy’s arm some six months after the fracture occurred, testified that its flexion was limited at the elbow; that it would bend about at a right angle, and that, in his opinion, the disability would be permanent.

[51]*51It appears that the tree had been lying in the position already stated something like twenty days before the injury happened. There was 'a trial resulting in judgment for plaintiff and defendant appealed. The errors assigned by defendant relate to the action of the court in the giving and refusing of instructions.

M”o"pomhms: obstructions: taken together, The defendant objects that the first instruction given for plaintiff is erroneous. It was to the effect. “That it was the duty of the defendant to keep the sidewalk in question free from any obstructions and if you believe from the evidence that any part of said sidewalk . was obstructed and said obstruction had existed such length of time that defendant could or might by the exercise of ordinary care have known of it in time enough to have removed the same prior to the accident, then, and in that case, the- defendant was guilty of negligence.” It was incomplete in that it did not leave it to the jury to find whether or not the sidewalk was reasonably safe for pedestrians passing along the same at the place where the injury happened to plaintiff’s son.

The defendant’s second told the jury that before the plaintiff could recover they must find from the greater weight of evidence: “1. That plaintiff’s said minor son was injured by reason of falling over said tree at the place alleged in the petition,” and “2. They must further find that said tree in the position in which it was lying made the sidewalk not in a reasonably safe condition ‘for travel upon it, a sufficient length of time before the accident, so that the city officials charged with the supervision of sidewalks would have discovered it and had time to remove it before the accident, if they had used ordinary care and diligence in the discharge of their duties.’ ”

When both of these instructions are taken together [52]*52and considered in their entirety they will be found to embody a correct expression of the law as applicable to the facts which the evidence tended to prove. Schmitz v. R’y, 119 Mo. loc. cit. 279; Haniford v. Kansas City, 103 Mo. 172. The jury, which was presumably composed of men of average intelligence, could not have misunderstood the question of fact which the court had, by these instructions, left for them to find. The defect complained of in plaintiff’s instruction could not, therefore, have prejudiced the defendant.

or assuming1 fact. Defendant further objects that the plaintiff’s second instruction, which told the jury that “if they find from the testimony that, the tree, any part of it, was obstructing the instructions: «/ x / «_> sidewalk, and that said obstruction remained upon said sidewalk for two weeks or twenty days before the accident, and continued so to be upon said sidewalk up to the time of the accident, and if you further believe that policemen passed back and forth upon said sidewalk every few days while said tree so remained upon said sidewalk prior to the accident then the city and its officers are presumed to have had knowledge or notice of said obstruction and dangerous condition of the same, and no actual notice was necessary to make the city liable,” is erroneous in that it assumes that the sidewalk was dangerous. The words “dangerous condition” in this instruction are used in the same sense and as the equivalents of the words “not in a reasonably safe condition” appearing in the defendant’s second instruction. The hypotheses of these two instructions do not differ in substance. The former told the jury that if they found certain facts — the same as those hypothesized in the latter — from these they were authorized to presume that the defendant had notice of the obstruction and the dangerous condition thereof. [53]*53There was no assumption of any issuable fact by the instruction, and it is therefore not subject to defendant’s criticism.

?finfant: instruction. The third instruction given for the plaintiff told the jury: “Plaintiff’s son, Ercell, was bound to exercise only such care and prudence as might reasonably be expected of a boy of his age and capacity, under similar circumstances,, and that the same degree of care and prudence m avoiding ° ° danger is not required from a person of tender years and imperfect discretion as from a person of mature years and greater discretion under similar circumstances; and if the jury believe from the evidence that plaintiff’s son Ercell was at the time of the accident of about eight years, they may take that fact into consideration in considering the question of negligence, if any, on the part of plaintiffThe defendant contends that the italicised part of this instruction singles out and gives prominence to a particular fact to which it especially invited the attention of the jury and that this was error. This instruction, it will be seen by reference to the adjudged cases in this state, is unobjectionable in its enunciation: Williams v. R’y, 96 Mo. 283; Eswin v. R’y, 96 Mo. 296; Ridenhour v. R’y, 102 Mo. 287; Bartley v. Trorlicht, 49 Mo. App. 214; Duffy v. R’y, 19 Mo. App. 389. 1

D«reAof“sins?rucs-' items,vanous The defendant’s seventh instruction related to the measure of damages and was as follows: “If you find for plaintiff, you will assess his damages an amount which will fully compensate and indemnify plaintiff for the loss of service or depreciated value of said child’s service, if any, to plaintiff on account of said injury during the minority of said child (that is, until said child arrives at the age of twenty-one years) and you will further allow an amount, which you believe [54]*54from the evidence would be the reasonable expense incurred by plaintiff or that he has become liable for in consequence of said injury, such as doctor’s bills and surgeon’s bills and attention and drugs and medicines ; and you will further allow plaintiff as 'damages, such further sum as you believe from the evidence, would equal the reasonable value of the services of himself and family while nursing and caring for said child on account of said injuries, not exceeding in all the sum of three thousand dollars.”

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Bluebook (online)
76 Mo. App. 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blackwell-v-hill-moctapp-1898.