Gabriel v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.

109 S.W. 1042, 130 Mo. App. 651, 1908 Mo. App. LEXIS 286
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 6, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 109 S.W. 1042 (Gabriel v. Metropolitan Street Railway 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
Gabriel v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 109 S.W. 1042, 130 Mo. App. 651, 1908 Mo. App. LEXIS 286 (Mo. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

BROAD DUS, P. J.

The plaintiff as the surviving parent brings this suit to recover for tbe death of her infant daughter six years of age, who was killed on the 14th day of August, 1906, by being run against by one of defendant’s electric cars going east on Fifth street, near its intersection with Cherry street, in Kansas City, Missouri.

The petition alleges that the death of the child was caused directly by the negligence of defendant in conducting and operating its car while she was with due care walking along said street in full view of the servants and agents of defendant. The specific grounds of negligence are substantially as follows: That defendant failed to ring its bell so as to notify the child of its danger, on account of the approaching car; that defendant employees did not stop the car or lessen its speed, although by the exercise of ordinary care they might have seen the child in time to have done so and prevented the injury; that the position of the child on or near the track of defendant in a place of danger was known to the defendant’s agents in charge of the car, or could by the exercise of ordinary care and diligence have been known to them in time to have stopped the car or slackened its speed and to have notified the child in time to have avoided striking her; that the agents and servants of defendant negligently ran said car so rapidly and at such a high rate of speed, ... so that the control of said car was lost, and it was beyond the power of the brakes with which said car was equipped to stop the same in time to avoid the injury heretofore alleged, after said agents of defendant knew that the child was upon the track or so close thereto as to be struck by the car, or by the exercise of ordinary care might have known that plaintiff’s child was upon said [654]*654track, or so close thereto as to be struck by the car; that defendant’s agents in charge of the car failed and neglected to keep a proper lookout for persons upon or close to said track as said car was run by them on the street; and that defendant’s agents were at the time of the injury, or immediately prior thereto running the car at a rate of speed in excess of that permitted by ordinance.

At the trial defendant objected to the introduction of any evidence on the ground that the petition did not state a cause of action. The objection was overruled. The parties respectively introduced evidence, and the cause was submitted to the jury which returned a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $3,500 upon which judgment was rendered and defendant appealed.

The first question raised is as to the sufficiency of the petition. The defect assigned is that it is inconsistent with itself. One of the allegations is, as we have seen, that the agents of defendant in charge of the car by the exercise of ordinary care might have seen the child in time to have prevented its death, and that the child’s position on ornear the track in a place of danger was known to defendant’s agent in charge of the car, or could by the exercise of ordinary care have been known to them in time to have, stopped the car or slackened its speed and to have notified the child in time to have avoided its injury. The other allegation referred to is that, wherein the defendant’s agents ran the car at such a high rate of speed, that the control of the car wias lost and it was beyond the power of the brakes with which it was equipped to stop' the same in time to have avoided the injury after they knew that the child was upon the track or by the exercise of ordinary care might have known that she was on the track.

The two allegations are inconsistent and both could not be true. In Raming v. Railroad, 157 Mo. 1. c. 508, the court in speaking of a similar case said: “The [655]*655statements of the petition are so repugnant to each other, so heterogeneous in their makeup, that any amount of testimony brought forward to support them would necessarily be equally repugnant, and therefore amount to no support at all; one portion of the testimony would kill the other. The petition on its face is a felo de se.” There are numerous cases of similar import. [Sherman v. Rockwood, 26 Mo. App. 403; McKee v. Cottle, 6 Mo. App. 416; England v. Denham, 93 Mo. App. 13; Adams v. Trigg, 37 Mo. 141.]

And if the rate of speed was so great as to have rendered it impossible for the motorman to stop the car' or slacken its speed by the exercise of ordinary care the defendant Ayas not liable under the humanitarian rule. [Haley v. Railroad, 197 Mo. 15.] The cause was submitted to the jury alone on the theory of the humanitarian rule, although much evidence was introduced on the part of the plaintiff to the effect that the car was operated at a rapid rate of speed, the tendency of which was to show that the motorman did not see and could not have seen the peril of the child in time, by the exercise of ordinary diligence to have saved her from injury. This was a fatal error.

That part of the city where the child was run against and killed is thickly populated, most of the inhabitants being Italians some of whom saw the tragedy and were witnesses at the trial. Part of them spoke the English language with difficulty and others had to testify through interpreters. Their testimony is somewhat indefinite but they generally agree that the car at the time was running at a rapid rate of speed and that no bell was rung. All the evidence on both sides was that the child approached the track of the defendant from a point near an alley about the middle of the block. She started to cross the street from the south side going somewhat in a northeast direction. The curb was shoAvn to have been not more than ten feet from the south [656]*656track of the railway. Fifth street at the place mentioned is almost level for some distance west from the place where the child was struck and the car could have been seen for several blocks away. Not one of plaintiff’s witnesses stated at what distance the car was west of the place where the child started from at the curbing to cross the street except one by the name of Camille-Farend, who was sitting in the door of her millinery store on the south side of the street. She testified that from her position she could see the car coming from the west then about twenty or thirty feet away at which time-it was about twenty feet from the child. She does not locate the position of the child with reference to the track whether nearer to it or to the curbing.

Had the motorman been looking ahead he could have seen the child as she approached the track. At any time after she left the curbing she was less than ten feet from the track and near danger; and if her actions indicated that she was not aware of her peril it was the duty of the motorman to have used all reasonáble diligence to stop the car or lessen its speed to avert the peril, and if by so doing he could have avoided striking her, but failed in that duty, the defendant would be liable. But there was no evidence that there was any action upon the part of the child to indicate that she was unaware of her danger in time for the defendant’s motorman to have avoided striking her. The mere fact that a person is on the street with the evident purpose of crossing it while a car is approaching is no evidence in itself that he intends to place himself in a position of peril. [Reno v. Railroad, 180 Mo. 469.] While plaintiff’s evidence fails to show that the motorman .

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Related

Peterie v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.
164 S.W. 254 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1914)
Gaedis ex rel. Gaedis v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.
143 S.W. 565 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1912)
Simon v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.
132 S.W. 250 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1910)
Settles v. Moore
129 S.W. 455 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1910)

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Bluebook (online)
109 S.W. 1042, 130 Mo. App. 651, 1908 Mo. App. LEXIS 286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gabriel-v-metropolitan-street-railway-co-moctapp-1908.