Green v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.

97 S.W. 646, 121 Mo. App. 720, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 524
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 19, 1906
StatusPublished

This text of 97 S.W. 646 (Green v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas 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
Green v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co., 97 S.W. 646, 121 Mo. App. 720, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 524 (Mo. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinions

ELLISON, J.

The plaintiff brought the present action to recover damages on account of being negligently delayed on one of defendant’s trains, whereby he was exposed in one of defendant’s cars to extremely cold weather during a night in January, 1902. He recovered judgment in the trial court.

It appears that plaintiff, a man sixty-six years old, in company with his wife, was travelling in a vehicle drawn by two horses from the northern part of the State to his home in Camden county, south of the Missouri river. That he arrived near that stream at a place on defendant’s line of railway called Estill in the afternoon of January 5th and there learned that he could not cross the river, as the ferry was not running. Estill was two miles north of a station called Franklin Junction and about five miles north of Boonville, a city on the south bank of the river. On the next afternoon, he made inquiry of defendant’s agent at Estill and was informed that his horses and vehicle could be shipped to Boon-ville for eight dollars and that he, the agent, did not know whether he would be taken without further charge, but that he could ascertain from the conductor when the [725]*725train came in. The horses and vehicle were then loaded in a closed freight car with a sliding door opening at the side. This door was fastened partially open, presumably for ventilation. The car was without heat of any kind. The conductor informed plaintiff that he must purchase tickets for himself and wife. That she must get in the caboose and that plaintiff could ride in the car with his horses to care for them. The agent at Estill informed plaintiff when he was inquiring about his transportation that he would reach Boonville at five o’clock that evening. The evidence did not show the exact time when the train left Estill, but tended to show that it wras between four and five o’clock and that it reached Franklin Junction at twenty minutes after five and that the car, in which plaintiff was, remained there all night, not getting across the river to Boonville until five o’clock next morning. When the train arrived at the Junction, the conductor told plaintiff’s wife that she must get out of the caboose, which she did. That he offered no assistance and that she did not know where or how to find the car in which plaintiff and the horses were, but with the aid of two strangers she found it and with tbeir assistance got into it with her husband. The car was moved further along, a few yards, and there kept all night, plaintiff and his wife remaining in it. The conductor nor any other of defendant’s servants gave them any information concerning the delay or when they would be taken on to Boonville. The night was severely cold and plaintiff (as well as his wife) suffered much, in consequence of which injuries and disabilities ensued. He stated as his reason for not leaving the car that, “After it got dark, the wind was blowing and the cars were passing every few minutes, and I knew it was certain death to go out, I could not see' good, or hear good, and would be run over with the trains find knew I best stay in the car, and I thought every minute the [726]*726train would start, I expected the man to do what he agreed to do after I done what I agreed to do.”

The defense pleaded was a general denial and that, if plaintiff got into the car and remained for any length of time and was exposed to the cold, such conduct was voluntary and without any fault, suggestion or knowledge of defendant. And that if plaintiff suffered any pain or impairment of health, or expense in consequence of such exposure, it was the result of his own reckless, careless and negligent conduct contributing thereto. The theory of the defense, as made to appear in the brief and argument, is that there was no delay since the car, in which plaintiff elected to travel, was moved according to regular schedule for handling business. That, if there was delay, it did not cause the injury. That defendant was not required to heat a freight car. That plaintiff could have left the car at any time during the delay. We will dispose of the case on the concession that there was evidence in defendant’s behalf tending to support its defense.

The.fact that plaintiff was being carried by a freight train will not excuse defendant from liability for negligence. And the question of negligence will be decided as if he had been upon a regular passenger train; except the nature of a freight train, the inconvenience and danger necessarily attending such mode of conveyance, will be considered in determining whether the carrier’s conduct was culpable. [Whitehead v. Railroad, 99 Mo. 263; Wait v. Railroad, 165 Mo. 612.]

Some stress is laid upon the fact that plaintiff occupied a freight car instead of the caboose. But that will not relieve the defendant if it had been negligent. A railway company was held liable to persons accepted as passengers on an open flat car, though the conductor had suggested to them that a box car would be a better place. [Wagner v. Railway, 97 Mo. 512.] ‘ And liable [727]*727to one, accepted as a passenger, riding on tlie top of a freight car. [Tibby v. Railway, 82 Mo. 292.]

We, however, readily concede that if one, with the consent of the conductor, voluntarily rides in a freight car, he must accept the consequences which naturally follow from such position, which are not directly influenced or brought about- by the negligence of the carrier. Thus, the plaintiff in this case had no right to expect that heat would be provided for him in the car in which he chose to ride. And we do not understand that counsel put his right to recover on such ground, although it was stated in the petition that there was no stove or heat in the car. It may be said that the absence of heat from the car caused the plaintiff to suffer from the cold. But that fact was known and voluntarily accepted by plaintiff. His complaint, as submitted to the jury, is a negligent delay of more than twelve hours in carrying him a.distance of only five or six miles, whereby he was exposed to the cold for such an unnecessary time as caused his suffering and consequent impairment to health. So we further concede that a passenger, .in the absence of a binding engagement by the carrier, had no right to expect that he will be carried in as short a time by an ordinary freight train as by a passenger train. But he may expect that there will be no unnecessary and negligent delay in his transportation on a freight train. The question of negligent delay was for the jury to determine and it was properly submitted to them, consistently with what we have written, by the court’s instruction wherein they were told to take into consideration the character of the train in determining the question whether there was any negligence.

The defendant insists that the delay was not proximate cause of the injury, of which plaintiff complains, [728]*728and argues that there was a station house at the Junction where plaintiff was detained, which was lighted and warm, and that plaintiff could have left the car and made himself comfortable at the station. That suggestion, disconnected from other evidence and circumstances, is not only plausible but reasonable. For it ought not to be said that one may have relief at hand and refuse to accept it. Or have a place of safety near by and refuse to go to it. So we decided in Reames v. Jones Dry Goods Co., 99 Mo. App. 404. But plaintiff had been told by the agent, from whom he purchased his ticket, that he would get to Boonville at five o’clock.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Atlantic & Pacific Railroad v. Laird
164 U.S. 393 (Supreme Court, 1896)
Weed v. . the Panama Railroad Company
17 N.Y. 362 (New York Court of Appeals, 1858)
Williams v. . Vanderbilt
28 N.Y. 217 (New York Court of Appeals, 1863)
International & Great Northern Railroad v. Harder
81 S.W. 356 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1904)
Reames v. Jones Dry Goods Co.
73 S.W. 935 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1903)
Norfolk & Western Railroad v. Lipscomb
20 L.R.A. 817 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1893)
Mobile & Ohio Railroad v. McArthur
43 Miss. 180 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1870)
Tibby v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.
82 Mo. 292 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1884)
Wagner v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.
97 Mo. 512 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1888)
Whitehead v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.
99 Mo. 263 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1889)
Wait v. Omaha, Kansas City & Eastern Railroad
65 S.W. 1028 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1901)
Heirn v. M'Caughan
32 Miss. 17 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1856)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
97 S.W. 646, 121 Mo. App. 720, 1906 Mo. App. LEXIS 524, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-v-missouri-kansas-texas-railway-co-moctapp-1906.