Higgins v. Gosney

435 S.W.2d 653
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 3, 1969
Docket52972
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 435 S.W.2d 653 (Higgins v. Gosney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Higgins v. Gosney, 435 S.W.2d 653 (Mo. 1969).

Opinion

FINCH, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment entered in his suit for the wrongful death of his minor son. The trial court *656 directed a verdict for defendant Gosney and the jury returned a verdict for defendants Heiney and Colonial Baking Company. Plaintiff obtained a verdict of $5,000 against defendant Alton Banking and Trust Company, Administrator, but the trial court set that verdict aside and granted a new trial to Alton Banking on the basis of an allegedly prejudicial remark by plaintiff’s counsel during argument to the jury. Plaintiff appeals, seeking a new trial as to Gosney, Heiney and Colonial Baking and reinstatement of his verdict against Alton Banking. We affirm the granting of a new trial to Alton Banking and reverse and remand for a new trial as to all other defendants.

A question has been raised as to our jurisdiction because plaintiff seeks to have the verdict against Alton Banking reinstated. Consequently, say certain defendants, only $5,000 is involved. Cases cited by defendants are Roark v. Gunter, Mo., 391 S.W.2d 258, Joffe v. Beatrice Foods Co., Mo., 335 S.W.2d 34, and comparable cases. The situation here presented is different from that involved in Roark v. Gunter. In that case plaintiff had a verdict for $12,250, after remittitur, against one defendant. Plaintiff sought a new trial as against the other defendant who had received a defendant’s verdict. The defendant against whom plaintiff had obtained judgment also appealed but did not perfect that appeal. This left standing plaintiff’s judgment against one of the defendants for $12,250. As a result, plaintiff would be limited to a maximum permissible recovery of $12,250 even if a new trial was obtained against the other defendant. This meant that $12,250 was involved and the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction. Similarly, in Joffe v. Beatrice Foods Co., supra, plaintiff obtained a verdict for $9,500 against defendant Frazee as to which there was no motion for new trial. A part of that judgment was paid by Frazee, but plaintiff secured a new trial as to defendant Beatrice Foods which the trial court had absolved on motion for directed verdict. This court held that by permitting judgment as against defendant Frazee to become final, the amount of plaintiff’s recovery became fixed and consequently the amount involved was insufficient to confer jurisdiction on this court. In contrast, there is no outstanding judgment in this case. The plaintiff does not have a judgment against any defendant for any amount. As the matter now stands, plaintiff seeks a new trial against defendant Gosney and against defendants Heiney and Colonial Baking. He actually has a new trial against Alton Banking. On all of these claims plaintiff will be seeking $25,000. Under these circumstances, the fact that plaintiff claims that his verdict for $5,000 was erroneously taken from him as to defendant Gosney does not govern, and we do have jurisdiction.

We detail the evidence because questions are raised as to whether plaintiff made a submissible case as to some of the defendants. The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, would support the following recital.

On July 8, 1964, at about 6:10 p. m., Gregory Patrick Higgins, the deceased minor son of plaintiff, was a passenger in a Corvair automobile driven by his mother, Theresa P. Higgins, on Highway 67 in St. Louis County. In the vicinity of the accident Highway 67 runs essentially north and south. It is a 24-foot blacktop highway with a painted divider line down the center. At that point the highway slopes moderately downgrade to the north and curves to the left as one proceeds to the north. Rain had been falling and the blacktop was very slick.

The Higgins Corvair was traveling northward at about 35 to 40 miles per hour. It had been followed for about five miles by a Chevrolet driven by defendant Gosney, who was traveling at the same speed about 50 feet behind the Corvair. As the Corvair approached and started around the curve to the left, Gosney noticed its brake lights come on and the back end of the car began to fishtail. Gosney then began to pump his *657 brakes. The Corvair continued to fishtail and crossed over the center line so as to be at least partially on the left-hand (west) side of the road.

At a point which Gosney estimated to be 200 feet after he first started to apply his brakes, he observed the tractor-trailer unit of defendant Colonial Baking Company (driven by defendant Heiney) approaching from the opposite direction. Gosney fixed the distance between his car and the truck at as much as 400 feet, which would have meant a distance of 350 feet at that time between the truck and the Higgins Cor-vair.

The Corvair continued to fishtail and then the back end swung around and the car began to slide down the highway sideways, straddling the center line. The front end of the Corvair was facing east (Gos-ney’s right). This continued until the collision occurred.

Defendant Heiney, the truck driver, testified that he was traveling up the grade at 40 to 45 miles per hour (the maximum posted speed was 40) and did not see the Cor-vair until it was about 75 feet away. He did not at any time see the Gosney Chevrolet until after the accident. Heiney let up on his accelerator when he saw the Cor-vair but didn’t immediately apply his brakes. However, he did so shortly although he did not ever fix the distance between the truck and the Corvair at the time he started to apply his brakes. When the truck was about 15 feet from the Corvair, Heiney attempted to turn left but his truck still was in its own lane at the time of impact. The front of the truck hit the center of the Cor-vair on its left-hand side. Heiney was not able to fix his speed at the time the truck and the Corvair collided.

The collision caused the Colonial tractor-trailer to jackknife. The back end of the trailer remained entirely in the southbound lane but the front end extended into the northbound lane and the tractor was entirely in the northbound lane and on the east shoulder. The truck pushed the Corvair back to the south a distance of 30 feet, and as it did so, it shoved it eastwardly onto the northbound lane and east shoulder.

Meanwhile, defendant Gosney had swerved his car to the right toward the shoulder and his car was two-thirds off onto the east shoulder at the time he collided with the Corvair. The left front corner of his Chevrolet hit the right rear fender of the Cor-vair. Gosney estimated that his speed at the time of said impact was 18 to 20 miles per hour, and he said that the truck and the Corvair were almost stopped at that time.

Gregory Higgins, his mother, Theresa, and his grandmother, also a passenger in the Corvair, were all killed instantly. The only other eyewitnesses were Gosney and Heiney, both of whom testified.

At the outset, and before we consider the various assignments raised on appeal by plaintiff, we should and do consider the contention urged by defendant Alton Banking (and adopted by the other defendants) that, regardless of any other issues in the case, plaintiff did not make a sub-missible case in that no pecuniary loss by him was shown. For that reason, say these defendants, their motions for a directed verdict should have been sustained.

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Bluebook (online)
435 S.W.2d 653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/higgins-v-gosney-mo-1969.