Gochenour v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co.

1952 OK 4, 239 P.2d 769, 205 Okla. 594, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 464
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 8, 1952
Docket34457
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1952 OK 4 (Gochenour v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gochenour v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 1952 OK 4, 239 P.2d 769, 205 Okla. 594, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 464 (Okla. 1952).

Opinion

O’NEAL, J.

This action was filed in the court below on September 30, 1948. Plaintiff attempted to state three separate causes of action.

The first cause of action is based on alleged wrongful death of A. S. J. Hill, the plaintiff’s decedent.

The second cause of action is based on conscious pain and suffering from date of the injury to the date of death of plaintiff’s decedent.

The third cause of action is based on expenses incurred for medical services rendered which resulted from the injuries complained of, as well as expenses incurred for the last illness and burial of plaintiff’s decedent.

The petition sets forth the following facts upon which plaintiff relies for relief: A. S. J. Hill was engaged as a sleeping car porter by the Pullman Company; that the defendant, St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, operated a train between Oklahoma City and Chicago, and that on the 7th day of February, 1947, the defendant’s train was derailed due to a defective roadbed, causing A. S. J. Hill to be violently thrown about in the Pullman car resulting in physical injuries which caused his death. The injuries having occurred in the State of Missouri, the plaintiff, in amplification of his petition, alleged that the Supreme Court of that state, in a certain case entitled Jones v. the St. Louis & Southwestern Railroad Co., 125 Mo. 666, held that the rights of a Pullman porter and the duties of the railroad company toward him do not materially differ from those of a passenger, railroad mail clerk, express messenger and drover in charge of livestock; that said decision has not been overruled, or modified, and is now the law of the State of Missouri, and is in full force and effect.

The answer of the defendant specifically denies that the administrator of the estate of A. S. J. Hill, deceased, can maintain the present action, and that, therefore, the court is without jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action; that under Missouri law an action for wrongful death can be brought by the administrator only if the deceased left no wife or child, and that the' deceased here left both a wife and child who were living when the administrator brought the present suit. Defendant further pleads the pertinent provisions of the Missouri statute governing wrongful death under which only the widow and the minor child of deceased may maintain the present action.

In a pretrial stipulation, the parties stipulated as follows:

(a) That A. S. J. Hill, plaintiff’s deceased, died on April 28, 1948;

(b) That John Gochenour of Kansas City, Missouri, was, on the 14th day of September, 1948, appointed administrator of the estate of A. S. J. Hill, deceased;

(c) That the deceased, A. S. J. Hill, was survived by Lucy Cordelia Hill, *596 his wife, and by Juanelda Hill, his minor daughter, who are the alleged beneficiaries under the present action;

(d) That on the 7th day of February, 1947, A. S. J. Hill was an employee of the Pullman Company and was in a Pullman coach attached to defendant’s train at the time of its derailment which occurred near the town of Republic, in the State of Missouri; that said Hill was not a fare-paying passenger on the train but was in the Pullman car as an employee of the Pullman Company.

Upon the pleadings so cast, and under the stipulation noted, the defendant, St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, filed its motion for judgment on the pleadings.

The motion was sustained and, after motion for new trial was denied, plaintiff appealed, alleging that the judgment is contrary to law.

Plaintiff properly assumes that under 12 O.S.A. §1053, there is created a new cause of action for wrongful death separate and distinct from the cause of action accruing to the injured person during his lifetime for injuries to his person, and that the latter cause of action, by virtue of 12 O.S.A. §1051, survives the death of the injured person and may also be maintained by his personal representatives. The damages to the injured person’s estate begin with the wrong and cease with his death. The damage to the surviving widow and child begin with and flow from the death of the injured person. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Goode, 42 Okla. 784, 142 P. 1185; City of Shawnee v. Cheek, 41 Okla. 227, 137 P. 724; Baltimore American Insurance Co. of New York v. Cannon, 181 Okla. 244, 73 P. 2d 167; Stokes v. Collum Commerce Co., 120 Okla. 133, 252 P. 390, and St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Hutchison, 117 Okla. 190, 245 P. 891.

Plaintiff asserts that the present case poses a question of conflict of laws, and that where there is a conflict in the law between the state where the wrong was inflicted and the law of the state where the action is brought to redress the wrong, the laws of the forum apply. As we view the record before us, it does not present a justi-ciable issue on conflict of law. The cause of action as cast in plaintiff’s pleadings, and as more fully disclosed in the stipulation entered into for the purpose of a pretrial hearing, pleads a cause of action for alleged wrongful death.

No such cause of action existed at common law, and it is only by virtue of the statutory law of Missouri that plaintiff’s cause of action is established. Plaintiff’s petition specifically pleaded pertinent provisions of the Missouri law as established by its highest appellate courts. Defendant also pleads pertinent provisions of the statutory law of Missouri and the construction placed thereon by its courts of last resort. The Missouri statute, §3652, as pleaded by defendant, insofar as pertinent, in substance, provides for a recovery of damages for injuries resulting in death in certain cases, and it specifies the persons who may maintain the action. The record before us discloses that at the date of the death of A. S. J. Hill, and at the time the present action was filed in the district court of Oklahoma county, the deceased left surviving him as his sole heirs, his widow and one minor child. The present action was not brought by the widow, or minor child, as provided by the Missouri statute, but it was instituted by an administrator appointed by the county court of Oklahoma county.

It is defendant’s contention that under the Missouri statute the widow was given a preference right to institute the action within six months from the date of her husband’s death; that if she neglected so to do her minor daughter could bring the action within a year from the date of the death of her father, but in no event is the cause of action vested in the administrator where the deceased left both widow and child. In Krueger v. Walters, 238 Mo. App. *597 340, 179 S. W. 2d 615, the Missouri court, construing the cited statute, held:

“Husband or wife, in absence of children, and minor children, if there is no husband or wife, have one year in which to commence action for wrongful death. . . .
“Under death statute, the time of bringing action for death is not reduced, so far as tort-feasor is concerned, by fact that both a spouse and minor children survive, but between surviving spouse and minor children, with respect to which shall be entitled to sue, the statute gives the former a preferential right conditioned that he or she sue within six months after the death.”

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Bluebook (online)
1952 OK 4, 239 P.2d 769, 205 Okla. 594, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gochenour-v-st-louis-san-francisco-ry-co-okla-1952.