Criss v. United Railways Co.

166 S.W. 834, 183 Mo. App. 392, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 493
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 5, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 166 S.W. 834 (Criss v. United Railways Co.) 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
Criss v. United Railways Co., 166 S.W. 834, 183 Mo. App. 392, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 493 (Mo. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, P. J.

Comparing the evidence in the case as set out in thé abstract with the statement as prepared by counsel for respondent, we find the latter statement so concise that we follow it with some additional statements taken from that of counsel for appellant, and a few of our own, with the premise that the accident occurred in the city of St. Louis and within what is designated as the central district, the speed in which is not to exceed ten miles per hour, and that the streets referred to are streets of that city.

Eleventh street runs north and south. Chouteau avenue runs east and west. The next street south of Chouteau is Hickory street. Between Hickory street [395]*395and Chouteau avenue there is an alley running east and west. About ninety-four feet south of the alley and on the east side of Eleventh street is a large building occupied at the time by the American Manufacturing Company, which, until passed, obstructs the view of Eleventh to the south. The plaintiff was a teamster in the employ of the Standard Transfer Company, which at the'time was doing the teaming for the American Manufacturing Company. The defendant operates a double track on Eleventh street between the two streets mentioned, over which tracks it runs two lines of cars, known as the Cherokee and Tower Grove cars, these cars running north on the east track and south on the west track. Eleventh street, at the alley, is fifty feet wide from building line to building line. The alley is twenty-four feet, ten inches wide. From the building line on the east side of the street at the alley to the east rail of the northbound track the distance is seventeen feet, four inches. The north line of the alley is five hundred and sixty-seven feet north of the north line of Hickory street, its south line five hundred and forty-three feet, two inches north of the north line of Hickory street. The north line of the alley is one hundred and sixty-six feet south of Chouteau avenue. The cars on each line run about three or four minutes apart each way. From Hickory street to Chouteau v avenue is slightly down grade.

On the 24th of October, 1911, at about half past one o’clock in the afternoon, the day being clear, plaintiff was driving his wagon from the premises of the American Manufacturing Company out of the alley north of the building of that company and along that alley, intending to go to a scale west of Eleventh street. The wagon was drawn by two horses and was loaded with what are called “patches.” With its load the wagon weighed between 12,000 and 13,000 pounds. The body of the wagon was about twelve feet long, the tongue some ten or twelve feet additional. Plaintiff [396]*396was well acquainted with the location, having driven out of this alley from time to time for some six or seven years. According to his own testimony, on the day of the accident as he drove along the alley, and before he passed the building line, he stopped his team and listened but heard no car. He then drove further so that he could see south past the building and toward Hickory street, and there stopped his team, the heads of his horses then being about three feet east of the east or northbound track. That put him, seated in his wagon, about fifteen feet from the east track, and two feet clear of the building line. He looked south and saw a northbound car at Plickory street, but he could not tell whether the car was moving or had stopped. So that when he saw the car it was about five hundred and forty-two feet and two inches south of him, south of the south line of the alley out of which he had driven. He then started to cross the tracks, driving at the rate of about two miles an hour. When his horses had crossed the west rail of the east tracks he again looked toward the south and saw the car about forty feet from him and coming toward him at a rate of speed which plaintiff estimated at from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour. That is, while plaintiff had traveled about eight feet the car had covered about five hundred feet. Plaintiff immediately started to whip up his horses, and when the front wheels of his, wagon were about at the west rail of the northbound or east track, the street car struck the wagon about at the front wheel, hurled it and the horses bodily off the track and around to the northeast comer of the alley, where the wagon struck against an iron lamp post, which it broke; the horses were thrown down and plaintiff was thrown to the street and sustained injuries on account of which he brought this suit. The car ran about ten feet further before it stopped. The noise of the collision was so loud that it was heard by persons at some distance.

[397]*397All of the witnesses testifying for plaintiff, as well as plaintiff himself, testified that the car had neither sounded any gong nor slackened up any immediately before the collision. Other witnesses than plaintiff, testifying for him, stated that the street car at the time of the collision was running between twenty and twenty-five miles an hour. There was testimony to the effect that when the team was going off of the west rail ‘of the east or northbound track, the street car was then about 150 or 200 feet south of there and coming on at a rapid rate, at from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour, as they testified. All of the witnesses testifying for plaintiff, and there were a number of them, testified that the street car failed to slacken its rate of speed at any time before the collision, but was then running at a rate of from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour. Counsel for appellant in their statement of the case admit that there was evidence in the case tending to show .that the ear was 150 feet from the wagon when the front wheels of the latter reached the east rail. Testimony of witnesses, introduced as experts, was to the effect that a car running at a rate of speed of twenty miles an hour could be stopped in 120 feet; at twenty-five miles an hour in 125 feet, but that with the type of car in question a very steep grade was necessary to obtain a speed of twenty miles an hour. One of these witnesses, a former motorman in the employ of defendant, testified that he could stop a car going at the rate of twenty miles an hour in eighty-five feet, and when going at thirty miles an hour in 125 feet.

On the part of defendant there was evidence tending to show that while the car was approaching the alley at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, plaintiff drove from the alley immediately in front of the car and so close thereto that the car could not be stopped in time to avert a collision. There was also testimony on the part of defendant to the effect that as soon as the motorman in charge saw the position [398]*398of the team, which was then, as he said, some forty feet from him, he endeavored to check up but was unable to prevent the collision, and that when he first saw the wagon and team the horses were then about to cross the northbound track.

The allegations of negligence are failure to sound a warning, violation of the so-called “vigilant watch” ordinance, or “humanitarian doctrine,” and violation of the speed ordinance of the city.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
166 S.W. 834, 183 Mo. App. 392, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 493, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/criss-v-united-railways-co-moctapp-1914.