Collins v. Wells

30 S.W.2d 28, 325 Mo. 736, 1930 Mo. LEXIS 487
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 3, 1930
StatusPublished

This text of 30 S.W.2d 28 (Collins v. Wells) 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
Collins v. Wells, 30 S.W.2d 28, 325 Mo. 736, 1930 Mo. LEXIS 487 (Mo. 1930).

Opinion

*738 WHITE, J.'

-The plaintiff sued for injuries alleged to have been received while alighting from one of defendant’s cars at the intersection of Bellefontaine Street and Grand Boulevard. The allegations of the petition are:

“. . . that when said street car arrived at the intersection of Grand Boulevard in this city the same was stopped at the regular and customary stopping place for letting off and taking on passengers; that while said street car ivas standing at said stopping place plaintiff attempted to alight therefrom through the front door; that while plaintiff was alighting and making her exit from said street car the defendant, his agents, servants and employees in charge of and operating said street car negligently caused, suffered and permitted said street car to move and to be put in motion, which caused plaintiff to be thrown and to fall to the street, whereby she sustained serious and permanent injuries, as hereinafter set forth. ’ ’

The petition assigns four acts of negligence which appellant in her brief summarizes as follows:

“While there are four assignments of negligence in plaintiff’s petition, they all go to one matter, that is, that the street car was negligently suffered and permitted to move and to be put in motion while plaintiff was in the act of alighting therefrom, and in fact are but one assignment of negligence stated in different ways. ’ ’

.The jury returned a verdict for the defendant and the plaintiff appealed. She complains of certain instructions given by the court which she charges are erroneous.

I. Instructions 3 and 4 are as follows:

“3. The court instructs the jury that if you find and believe from the evidence that the car in question was not started forward into motion while the plaintiff was in the act of alighting, then plaintiff cannot recover, and your verdict must be for the defendant.

“4. The court instructs the jury that if you find *739 and believe from the evidence that the plaintiff was caused to fall from the car in question in any other way than by- the' ear being started forward into motion, while plaintiff was in the act of alighting therefrom, then plaintiff cannot recover, and your verdict must be for the defendant.”

These instructions confine the right of' recovery to the'negligent starting forward of the car while the plaintiff was in the act of alighting. She argues that any motion of • the ■ car which caused her to fall was within the issues. It-may be. conceded that any motion negligently caused by the operation's of the car was within the allegations of the petition, but the only evidence on the subject by the plaintiff was that the motion of‘the car was a forward motion. She testified as follows: • '

“I was going to step out this way when the: car went that way. I was pitched on the back of my head and shoulders and with the impact with the granite blocks, my hand must have come this way and fractured three ribs. .
!<Q. Now you say that the car started to move; in which direction did it move ? A. It turned to G-ránd, • you. see, and I was thrown backwards.
“Q. Did it start to go backward, or sidéwáys, or forward, or how? A. It started forward that way. I didn’t'know anything more, for I was knocked unconscious. .
“Q. Alnd the car at that-time was stopped? - A. Yes, sir.
“Q. It was standing still then? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Now, how close were you to the people getting off ahead of you? A. I was behind them waiting for them to get down. When I stepped down, then the man rang the bell and- the ear moved.
“Q. Then you were getting, ready to step onto the street? A. Yes, sir, out into the street. "
”Q. To step out into the street? A. Yes, sir.
‘ ‘ Q, And I understand you to tell the jury' -at' that time you were bringing down your right foot -to where your - left was and you say the car started ? A,. ■ Someone rang the bell, and the ■motorman started the car, and when it did it just flung -me that way.
‘1Q. As you brought your right foot down to put it. onto the step the bell was rung? A. Yes,-sir..'. - ■
”Q. Do you know how many times the bell rung? A. No sir, I only heard the bell ring once. ■ ¡
“Q. You heard the bell ring once? A. -Once,' yes sir.
“Q. And when you heard this bell ring, you say the motorman or someone started the car? A. The motorman started the car. •
“Q. Did you see him start it? A. Yes, he put- his -hand on that controller that he turns the brake with.”

On being recalled for'further cross-examination the plaintiff testified: ' • ■ ■ 1 ■ .'

*740 “Q. Did the car move when you were talcing-your step into the street or did -the car move when you were bringing your right foot down -to the left foot? A. In bringing the right foot down to the .step where the left foot was. ■
“Q. And that was when the car moved ? A. Yes.
“ Q. - And which way did it move; did it go forward or backward ? A. Forward.
“Q. It went-forward? A. Yes sir.
“Q. As a matter of fact that car didn’t move while you ivere getting off of it? A.-- The car moved; the car jolted towards Grand Avenue. -
“Q. Jolted forward? A. Yes sir. ...
“Q. But it was at that time when you. were bringing your right foot to the step that you say the car jolted? A. The jolt came and pitched me to the street onto the granitoid blocks.
“Q, Now, you say- you were thrown backwards. A. I was pitched backward. When the. car went forward I was thrown backwards.
“Q. You were thrown backwards when the car went forward? A. Yes sir.”

■ Thus the plaintiff’s ‘ evidence is all to the effect that the car moved forward, and she nowhere says it moved in any other direction. Nor is there any other evidence offered by the plaintiff to show that it moved in any other direction:

Appellant cites some cases which hold that where evidence is introduced slightly varying from the allegations of the petition and it goes in without objection an issue may be submitted to the jury upon such evidence. But those cases are not important here. The only evidence offered by the plaintiff regarding negligence was that the car moved forward and the instructions complained of required proof of that sort of motion. Plainly the petition means a forward motion where it charged that before the plaintiff had time to alight the servants of the defendant caused the car to start. The natural inference would be that it was caused to start on its journey.

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Related

Benjamin v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.
151 S.W. 91 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
30 S.W.2d 28, 325 Mo. 736, 1930 Mo. LEXIS 487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collins-v-wells-mo-1930.