Chadwick v. St. Louis Transit Co.

93 S.W. 798, 195 Mo. 517, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 266
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 30, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 93 S.W. 798 (Chadwick v. St. Louis Transit 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
Chadwick v. St. Louis Transit Co., 93 S.W. 798, 195 Mo. 517, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 266 (Mo. 1906).

Opinion

BRACE, P. J.

— This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the St. Louis City Circuit Court in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $5,500 for personal injuries.

Plaintiff’s cause of action, as stated in the petition, is as follows:

“For her cause of action herein the plaintiff states that on .the twenty-first day of August, 1903, at night, she entered and was received as a passenger on a westbound car of the defendant at Garrison avenue and [521]*521Olive street on its said line of .railroad in the said city of St. Louis, for the purpose of being carried and transported as such passenger' to her destination at Creve Coeur on the defendant’s said line of railroad in the said county of St. Louis, and that the defendant thereby promised and agreed, and it was the duty of the defendant, to carry and transport the plaintiff well and safely to her said destination; that'while the plaintiff was a passenger on said car as aforesaid the defendant, and its agents and servants in charge of said car, carelessly and negligently caused, suffered and permitted said car to enter and run into a curve on the defendant’s said line of railroad, being the first westward curve for west-hound cars on the defendant’s said line of railroad north of Delmar avenue or Bonhomme road in the said county of St. Louis, at a rapid, excessive and dangerous rate of speed, and to strike said curve with sudden, violent and unusual force, whereby the plaintiff was thrown from her seat in said car to the ground with great force and violence, her head, body and limbs were scratched and bruised, her pelvic organs were injured, her nervous system was shocked and seriously impaired, and she was otherwise internally and greatly injured; that by reason of her injuries received as aforesaid the plaintiff has suffered, and will continue to suffer, great pain in mind and body, has lost, and will continue to lose, the earnings of her labor, has been compelled to expend, and has expended, large sums of money for medical treatment and medicines, is permanently injured, and has been actually damaged in the sum of fifteen thousand dollars.”

The answer was a general denial.

At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence the defendant demurred thereto, and its demurrer was overruled. A like demurrer was interposed at the close of all the evidence and overruled.

The main issue in the case was submitted to the jury on the following instructions:

[522]*522For Plaintiff :
“1. If the jury find from the evidence that on the 21st day of August, 1903, the defendant was a carrier of passengers for hire, and used and operated the railroad and car mentioned in the evidence for such purpose, and if the jury further find from the evidence that on said day the defendant’s agents and servants in charge of said car received the plaintiff as a passenger thereon; and if the jury further find from the evidence that while the plaintiff was being carried as such passenger on said-car, the defendant’s agents and servants in charge of said car, carelessly and negligently caused, suffered and permitted said car to run into and strike the curve on the defendant’s railroad, mentioned in the evidence, with sudden, violent and unusual force, and that the plaintiff was thereby thrown from said car upon the ground and was injured; and if the jury further find from the evidence that the defendant’s agents and servants in charge of said car could, by the exercise of that degree of care, prudence and caution which very careful and prudent persons would use' and exercise in a like business and under like circumstances, have prevented said car from so running into and striking said curve, and failed to do so, and if the jury further find from the evidence that the plaintiff was exercising that degree of care which would be exercised by persons of ordinary prudence under the same or similar circumstances, then the verdict of the jury must be in favor of the plaintiff.”
For Defendant :
“1. The jurors are instructed that negligence cannot be presumed, but must be proved, and the burden of proof is upon the plaintiff to prove by the preponderance or greater weight of the evidence that her injuries, if you believe she was injured, were the result of the negligence alleged in plaintiff’s petition, to-wit: That while the plaintiff was a passenger on one of defendant’s cars the defendant’s agents and servants in [523]*523charge of said car, carelessly and negligently caused, suffered and permitted said car to enter and run into a curve on the defendant’s said line of railroad, being the first westward curve for west-bound cars on the defendant’s said line of railroad north of Delmar avenue on Bonhomme road in the said county of St. Louis, at a rapid, excessive and dangerous rate of speed, and to strike said curve with sudden, violent and unusual force, whereby plaintiff was thrown from -.her seat in said car to the ground. In considering the question as to whether the defendant was negligent, you are confined to the specific charges thus made, and unless you find that the defendant was negligent in this particular respect your verdict will be for the defendant, even though you may believe from the evidence the defendant may have been negligent in some other respect. ’ ’

The verdict was for the plaintiff for $5,500.

The errors assigned for reversal of the judgment are: the overruling of the demurrers to the evidence, the giving of instruction numbered 1 for the plaintiff, and that the damages are excessive.

The facts disclosed by the evidence for the plaintiff, briefly stated, are as follows:

The plaintiff, at the time she was injured, was a young woman about twenty-one years of age, in good health, and in the employ of a dry goods establishment, •earning ten dollars a week. About eight o’clock on the evening of the 21st of August, 1903, she, in company with her mother, two sisters and some other friends, took passage on one of the defendant’s west-bound •summer cars on Olive street, at Garrison avenue, in ■St. Louis, for Creve Coeur lake, in the county of St. Louis. On the line of defendant’s road between the •city limits and Oreve Ooeur lake in St. Louis county, there is a curve, the approach to which is indicated by a signpost on which are the words, “Slow up.” On the evening in' question, the defendant’s car in which [524]*524the plaintiff was a passenger, together with some twenty or thirty other persons, struck this curve with such force and violence as to extinguish its lights, throw the plaintiff, one of her sisters and another passenger, Judge Pollard, out of the car, and to shock and throw down and around many other passengers within the car. The plaintiff and her sister and Judge Pollard were rendered unconscious by their fall, and, after the car was stopped, were found by some of the other passengers, the plaintiff in a ditch under a barbed wire fence. She was assisted up to the track, placed upon a returning car and brought back to the city. A physician, Dr. R. M. Her ley, a general practitioner, making a specialty of diseases of women, was at once called to treat the plaintiff for her injuries. He testified, in substance, that he found her injured all over, particularly in the pelvic organs; that he found scratches and bruises all over the body — the pelvic organs, evidently the ovaries and the womb itself and appendages, were disturbed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 S.W. 798, 195 Mo. 517, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chadwick-v-st-louis-transit-co-mo-1906.