Blind v. Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc.

349 S.W.2d 425, 1961 Mo. App. LEXIS 557
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 19, 1961
DocketNo. 30612
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 349 S.W.2d 425 (Blind v. Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc.) 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
Blind v. Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc., 349 S.W.2d 425, 1961 Mo. App. LEXIS 557 (Mo. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

RUDDY, Acting Presiding Judge.

This case comes to the writer on reassignment. It is. a suit by plaintiff, appellant herein, for personal injuries sustained in a collision between two automobiles. Plaintiff obtained a verdict and judgment in the amount of $5,000 against defendants, Weisels-Hoehn Real Estate Company, Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc., and Albert Ross. There was a verdict in favor of defendant Lloyd Weekley.

Separate motions for a directed verdict and for a new trial were filed by defendants, Weisels-Hoehn Real Estate Company and Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc. Defendant Albert Ross filed a motion for new trial only. The trial court sustained the separate motions of Weisels-Hoehn Real Estate Company and Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc., for a directed verdict and entered judgment in favor of each of said defendants in accordance with their separate motions and further ordered that said defendants’ motions for a new trial be denied if its action in sustaining said motions for directed verdict be reversed on appeal. The trial court overruled the motion for new trial filed by defendant, Albert Ross. The individual defendants will be referred to by their last names and the corporate defendants as Weisels-Hoehn and Saks. Plaintiff has appealed from the judgment of the court sustaining the separate motions for directed verdict of Weisels-Hoehn and Saks.

Plaintiff insists that there was substantial evidence to support the jury findings that defendant Ross was the servant of Saks and was acting as servant and on behalf of Weisels-Hoehn at the time of the collision.

In determining whether plaintiff made submissible issues, in the above respects, for the jury, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff and accord to him the benefit of all favorable inferences that reasonably arise from all the evidence. Rhyne v. Thompson, Mo., 284 S.W.2d 553; Brown v. Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. of Philadelphia, Mo.App., 263 S.W.2d 893.

On March 17, 1958, plaintiff was operating a 1958 Ford automobile westwardly on McPherson Avenue, a four-lane highway in the City of St. Louis, on which there were streetcar tracks. At the intersection of Me-[427]*427Pherson and Euclid Avenues he brought his Ford to a stop, the intersection being protected with four way boulevard stop signs. The stop sign for traffic traveling westward- • ly on McPherson was 8 to 10 feet east of the east curb line of Euclid. Immediately ahead of plaintiff, as he was driving toward the intersection, was a tractor-trailer truck. The tractor-trailer was making a left turn to go southwardly on Euclid. After the tractor-trailer pulled forward, preparatory' to making the left turn, plaintiff stopped his car at the stop sign for westbound traffic. On the day in question a light snow was falling and the streets were “a little bit wet — they weren’t icy but they were wet.” Plaintiff’s car was stopped about 2 to 2½ feet north of the center of McPherson and no part of his car was south of the center of the street.

While in this stopped position, plaintiff saw for the first time a black Studebaker car driven by defendant Ross, the front end of which was just north of the south curb line of McPherson, at which time the tractor-trailer truck was in the act of making a left turn and w;hen doing so blocked the progress of northbound traffic on Euclid. At the time plaintiff first saw the Studebaker car the back end of said car was “just about even with the stop sign” for northbound traffic on Euclid. The distance from the stop sign to the south curb of McPherson was about 14 feet. When plaintiff first saw the Studebaker car it “was heading in a northeast direction, trying to go around that corner.” By this plaintiff meant the Studebaker car was attempting to turn right onto McPherson.

When plaintiff first saw the Studebaker car traveling “in a northeast direction,” he said, “it was coming right at me.” The right front of the Studebaker car hit the middle of plaintiff’s car. The impact slammed plaintiff’s car into a fire plug. Plaintiff estimated the speed of the Studebaker car when he first saw it at 30 miles per hour and it never did slacken its speed before the collision, nor was a horn sounded. Plaintiff heard nothing that would indicate the brakes had been applied prior to the collision and testified it was impossible to reach a speed of 30 miles per hour in a distance of 14 feet. When the collision took place the tractor-trailer truck was still in the intersection making a left turn onto Euclid and was moving 3 or 4 miles per hour. The Studebaker car could not have proceeded north on Euclid without colliding with the tractor-trailer truck. Defendant Ross, driver of the Studebaker car, told a police officer in the presence of plaintiff that “he worked for Saks Fifth Avenue.” Plaintiff thought the distance from Maryland Avenue to McPherson Avenue on Euclid Avenue was 2 or 3 blocks. Plaintiff did not know whether the police checked the brakes on the Studebaker car after the collision. He saw defendant Ross get into the car, with a policeman looking on, but he did not know what Ross did.

Defendant Albert Ross testified as a .witness for plaintiff. Ross said he was employed by Saks as a parking lot attendant at 4637 Maryland Avenue. ■ The lot was used for parking cars of the customers of! Saks and was also used for this purpose by the tenants of the Maryland Medical Build-' ing and the patrons of the tenants. Randolph Milton, employed to park cars for tenants and patrons of the Medical Build-i ing, was also an attendant on the parking, lot. Ross explained that his duties were to park the cars “for the customers” and to give them a ticket when the car was parked. Two kinds of tickets were used in connection with the parking of cars on the lot'.' If the one parking- the car was a customer of Saks, he or she, was given a white ticket with brown letters. If the one parking the car was a tenant of the Medical Building or a patron of a tenant, he or she, was given a brown ticket with darker brown letters. Saks furnished the white tickets. The brown tickets were furnished by the Medical Building. Concerning the parking procedure on the lot the following interrogation took place-:

“Q. Now, when an automobile would come on the lot, for instance, [428]*428someone would drive his car on the lot, what would be the procedure? A. Their procedure would be to drive on the lot and tell us where they were going and we will give them a ticket, and if they want us to park them, we will do it or they will park their cars themselves.
“Q. What would happen, for instance, if you were busy parking a car and another car came on the lot — ■ a customer of Saks Fifth Avenue? Would the other boy take care of it while you were engaged? A. Yes, he would.
“Q. I assume the same arrangement worked if he was busy and a patron of the medical building came in, you would take care of that person? A. That is right.
“Q. So you would carry both kinds of tickets? A. That is right.”

It was part of his duties to deliver cars of the customers of Saks down to the store, which was a short distance from the parking lot, and to bring cars from the store for parking on the lot. Ross was asked if there were occasions when Randolph Milton would bring cars to and from Saks’ store when he was busy and he answered “Never.”

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Bluebook (online)
349 S.W.2d 425, 1961 Mo. App. LEXIS 557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blind-v-saks-fifth-avenue-inc-moctapp-1961.