Bootee v. Kansas City Public Service Co.

183 S.W.2d 892, 353 Mo. 716, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 483
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 4, 1944
DocketNo. 39171.
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 183 S.W.2d 892 (Bootee v. Kansas City Public Service 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
Bootee v. Kansas City Public Service Co., 183 S.W.2d 892, 353 Mo. 716, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 483 (Mo. 1944).

Opinions

Action for $10,000 damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained on account of the negligence of defendant. The jury returned a verdict for defendant and judgment was entered accordingly. Plaintiff has appealed.

On June 19, 1942, at about 12:30 A.M., while plaintiff was crossing 15th street at or near Woodland avenue in Kansas City, he was struck and injured by one of defendant's trolley buses. Plaintiff's petition charged both primary and humanitarian negligence, but the cause was submitted solely on humanitarian negligence in failing to stop the trolley bus, slacken its speed and change its course or swerve it and thereby avoid injuring plaintiff after defendant's trolley bus operator saw, or by the exercise of ordinary care could have seen, plaintiff in a position of imminent peril and oblivious thereto.

Appellant assigns error on the giving of instruction 2 (a sole cause instruction requested by defendant) and on the admission in evidence of certain records of the Bell Memorial Hospital of Kansas, offered by defendant. Respondent contends that the instruction was correct and the evidence admissible; that, in any event, "plaintiff was not injured because he was not entitled to recover," regardless of the alleged errors; and that "the judgment was for the right party and should be affirmed." If plaintiff did not make a case for the jury, the *Page 719 errors assigned are immaterial. Bello v. Stuever (Mo. Sup.), 44 S.W.2d 619, 620; Hendricks v. Weaver (Mo. Sup.), 183 S.W.2d 74. A statement of the evidence most favorable to plaintiff is required.

According to plaintiff, he was walking north, "kind of fast," on the west side of Woodland avenue, crossing 15th street on the green traffic light and watching the headlights of a southbound car on Woodland avenue. Before starting across, he had observed defendant's westbound trolley bus standing on the east side of the intersection, where it had stopped to discharge passengers. He did not notice the bus again until he had reached a point about 6-8 feet from the north curb of 15th street (at northwest corner of the intersection), [894] when he saw defendant's trolley bus bearing down upon him from the east, 6-8 feet distant, and at a speed of 8-10 miles per hour. Plaintiff was then in the middle of the path of the bus and he jumped north in an effort to get out of the way, but he was struck by the right front end of the bus and was knocked down and injured. The bus did not swerve, change its course or speed, nor sound any signal before plaintiff was struck.

Plaintiff was a colored man 19 years of age. He was wearing a blue suit and a pearl gray hat. Since 1931 he had suffered with bilateral leukoma, referred to as a film or scum over both eyes, a milky-white opacity of the cornea, which materially affected his ability to see. He testified, however, that, on the night in question, he was able to see the north curb line of 15th street when he was 40 feet away from it; that he saw the trolley bus on the opposite side of 15th street and across Woodland avenue, when he started to cross 15th street; and that he was able to observe the traffic lights at the intersection.

There was much conflicting evidence concerning the existing weather conditions. It had been sprinkling rain and, as plaintiff went north across 15th street, it began to rain harder. It was not raining "real hard." The wind was blowing some, "blowing light." It had been a stormy night, but "had kind of quieted down." For the purpose of determining whether plaintiff made a case for the jury, we must disregard other evidence of plaintiff's and defendant's witnesses concerning the extreme severity of the storm at the time of the collision, since the jury could disbelieve such evidence. As plaintiff walked north across 15th street, there was fair visibility. A garage man, who was leaving his place of business to go home, was standing by his parked automobile on the east side of Woodland avenue (75 feet south of 15th street). He looked northwest, at an angle across Woodland avenue (30 feet wide) and partly across 15th street (76 feet wide), and saw plaintiff walking "pretty fast" north across 15th street and along the west side of Woodland avenue. When plaintiff was about 25 feet from the north curb of 15th street, the bus was about 15 feet away to the east and was approaching at 10 to 12 miles per hour. The witness saw the bus strike plaintiff and then go on some 20 feet *Page 720 beyond before it stopped. Certain witnesses on the bus testified that they were able to "see far enough out (of the bus) to recognize any buildings around the immediate vicinity," on both sides of the bus, and to observe the red traffic signal on Woodland avenue, while the bus was stopped, and the green traffic light when the bus started across Woodland avenue. One passenger observed an "object" moving across 15th street, when the bus started across Woodland avenue, and the "object", it developed, was plaintiff, "a pedestrian crossing north in the regular crossing lane on the west side of Woodland."

The trolley bus in question was a rubber tired vehicle for operation on the streets in the transportation of passengers. It was propelled by a motor, located in the rear of the bus, and the motor was operated by electricity supplied from overhead trolley wires. Such a bus could be swerved 12 feet either way without losing connection with or coming "out from under the trolley wires." According to the evidence, under conditions existing at the time and place in question, to wit, with wet streets, a slight decline in grade and some 23 passengers in the trolley bus, the bus at a speed of 10 miles per hour could be brought to a stop in an emergency with reasonable safety to the bus and passengers in 15 feet; at 8 miles per hour in 12 feet; and at 6 miles per hour in 8 feet.

For defendant, the trolley bus operator testified that the bus was traveling not over 2 or 3 miles per hour in crossing Woodland avenue and about 6 miles per hour at the time of the collision; that on account of the severity of the rainstorm, visibility was reduced to 30 to 35 feet; that he could not see outside of the headlights; that no one was within the range of the headlights when he started across Woodland avenue; that he first saw plaintiff, when plaintiff came running in a northernly direction directly into the rays of the headlights of the bus, from the left side, at a point 60 feet west of the west line of Woodland avenue; and that plaintiff when first seen was about 6 feet in front of the bus and directly in front of the left headlight. The operator said he applied the brakes, swerved the bus to the right, and stopped the bus in 7 or 8 feet, only 2 or 3 feet after plaintiff was hit. It will not be necessary to review the evidence further since we only need to determine from the evidence whether plaintiff made a case for a jury and that there was evidence upon [895] which to base defendant's sole cause instruction.

[1] In support of its theory that no case was made for a jury, the respondent insists that "this is not a last chance case"; that "the humanitarian doctrine is not in this case"; that, when plaintiff came into peril, it was too late to stop, slacken the speed and swerve the bus and avoid the collision; that "no human ingenuity could have saved plaintiff"; that under the humanitarian doctrine there was no duty on the operator of the trolley bus to act, until plaintiff was in a position of certain, immediate, impending, and "imminent peril"; *Page 721

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Bluebook (online)
183 S.W.2d 892, 353 Mo. 716, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bootee-v-kansas-city-public-service-co-mo-1944.