Henson v. Terminal Railroad

414 S.W.2d 791, 1967 Mo. App. LEXIS 715
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 18, 1967
DocketNo. 32510
StatusPublished

This text of 414 S.W.2d 791 (Henson v. Terminal Railroad) 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
Henson v. Terminal Railroad, 414 S.W.2d 791, 1967 Mo. App. LEXIS 715 (Mo. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

TOWNSEND, Commissioner.

Action for personal injuries resulting from the alleged negligent construction, maintenance and operation of a toll bridge by defendant. Plaintiff had a nine-man verdict and judgment for $11500. The verdict and judgment were set aside by the trial court and judgment was entered for defendant in accordance with defendant’s Motion for a Directed Verdict made at the close of all the evidence.

Defendant maintains and operates a toll bridge across the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, familiarly known as Eads Bridge. The lower level or deck of the bridge is devoted to railroad traffic. The upper deck is a vehicular toll highway, 41 feet wide. Near the eastern end of the upper level, over the Illinois shore, the vehicular roadway ends; eastbound traffic is intercepted by a large concrete bulkhead which diverts such traffic to the right to a ramp-running down to the bridge approaches. In a similar way westbound traffic comes up a ramp on the other side to the vicinity of the bulkhead near which it adjoins the eastbound traffic area. In front of the bulkhead — to the west — there has been constructed a V-shaped concrete divider, one foot thick and one foot high; each leg of the divider is thirty-seven feet long and the distance between the two legs where they abut the bulkhead is twenty-nine feet.

At about 1:00 A.M., January 22, 1963, plaintiff-appellant and Mrs. Violet Speck left Sheraton-Jefferson Hotel in St. Louis, their place of employment, in Mrs. Speck’s car, Mrs. Speck driving, with the intention of visiting a restaurant in East St. Louis. They proceeded to the bridge, paid toll and moved toward the east end. According to plaintiff’s testimony, Mrs. Speck drove on the right side of the bridge, “She wasn’t driving fast, or she wasn’t slow, neither, you know, driving slow.” Plaintiff wasn’t paying much attention — looking out to the side, the car moved forward in a straight line without.changing direction or speed until it struck the V-divider. She did not notice any other cars on the bridge moving in either direction. She stated that there was nothing about Mrs. Speck’s operation that indicated to her that Mrs. Speck was not going to make the turn to the right and go down the ramp; there was nothing about her driving that caused plaintiff to say anything about her manner of driving. On previous occasions plaintiff and Mrs. Speck had travelled eastward over Eads Bridge, going past the same bulkhead, making the turn and going down the ramp into Illinois. On this occasion she did not see the concrete divider until the car collided with it and bumped over it. When shown defendant’s exhibit 1, a photograph of the [793]*793locale of divider and bulkhead, plaintiff testified that it correctly represented the •divider, curb, bulkhead and the “Keep to Right” sign as they were on the night of the accident.

That photograph shows that the front of the divider carries alternate diagonal stripes of white and some dark color. It shows also that the much higher bulkhead, approximately thirty-four feet to the rear of the apex of the V-divider, is also painted with alternate diagonal stripes of the same kind. Atop the center of the bulkhead is a sign of apparently greater height than the height of the bulkhead itself; on the sign, in large painted letters, appear the words “Keep To" on one line and the word “Right” directly beneath “Keep To”. On top of this sign is a smaller diamond-shaped sign carrying the word “Slow”. Directly beneath the right third of the “Keep to Right” sign and apparently affixed to the bulkhead is a sign with a white background; superimposed thereon is an arrow pointing to the right. At a slightly lower level, directly beneath the center of the “Keep to Right” sign and also apparently affixed to the bulkhead is an ■octagonal plaque carrying numerous objects which have the appearance of glass reflectors. At the extreme right and on the face of the bulkhead is a line of neon tubing terminating in an arrow pointing to the right. Immediately behind the apex of the V-divider on a standard of its own is a pentagonal plaque carrying six reflectors. ■Of this congeries of objects at the scene, plaintiff remembers seeing only the bulk-Iiead, the divider and the “Keep to Right” ■sign on the night of the accident. She did not remember going from the bridge to the hospital.

The photographs used by the plaintiff and those used by the defendant as exhibits were taken by the same photographer. The plaintiff’s photographs were taken at a date later than those used by defendant. Certain changes in the signs had been made in the Interim, but the location of the bulkhead, the divider and the Keep to Right sign, as well as the stripes on divider and bulkhead, are the same in both photographs. According to the photographer’s estimate, plaintiffs Exhibit D was taken at a distance of sixty-five feet from the apex of the divider. That exhibit depicts with complete clarity the bulkhead, the divider and' the “Keep Right” sign. The same witness, testifying concerning defendant’s Exhibit 3, estimated that that photograph was taken at a distance of 175 feet from the closest point of the divider; the latter exhibit shows plainly the location of the bulkhead with its stripes across the roadway. It also portrays the “Keep to Right” sign, the “Slow” sign, the sign of the arrow, the reflectors and the divider.

The exhibits of each party show two separate lighting fixtures attached to the top of the Keep Right sign with shades directed downward for the plain purpose of illuminating the sign. Likewise the exhibits of each party show the existence of a row of lighting standards on each side of the bridge; these standards are along and just outside the curbing on each side of the roadway. In answer to an interrogatory the defendant stated that the height above the highway deck of the illuminating devices on the standards was between nineteen feet and nineteen feet nine inches. In another answer the defendant stated that the shortest distance between any part of the divider and any part of the standards was 57 feet 6 inches.

None of the exhibits shows any lane markings on the surface of the highway deck at any point.

Mrs. Speck, called by plaintiff, has no recollection of events from the time of taking her car from the garage at the hotel untjj. she regained consciousness in the hospital two weeks after the. accident.

Defendant offered no testimony.

Action was originally brought against Mrs. Speck and Terminal. Subsequently in February, 1965, the action against Mrs. Speck was dismissed with prejudice as a result of a settlement between plaintiff and [794]*794Mrs. Speck under which plaintiff was paid $5850.

The duty resting upon a person in the position of the defendant here was long ago stated by the Supreme Court: “Although defendant is not a common carrier, its obligation is to keep its bridge in a reasonably safe condition for travel, and it is only liable for negligence in failing to so keep it * * * the authorities substantially agree that ordinary care is all the law requires; but to constitute ordinary care the care must be proportionate to the danger to be apprehended * * * such care as a person of ordinary prudence would exercise.” Gibler v. Terminal R. R. Ass’n, 203 Mo. 208, 101 S.W. 37, 39, 40, 41. See Sirounian v. Terminal Railroad Ass’n, 236 Mo.App. 938, 160 S.W.2d 451, 453.

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Related

Sirounian v. Terminal Railroad Assn. of St. Louis
160 S.W.2d 451 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1942)
Gibler v. Terminal Railroad
101 S.W. 37 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1907)

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Bluebook (online)
414 S.W.2d 791, 1967 Mo. App. LEXIS 715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henson-v-terminal-railroad-moctapp-1967.