Jager v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.

89 S.W. 62, 114 Mo. App. 10, 1905 Mo. App. LEXIS 276
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 26, 1905
StatusPublished

This text of 89 S.W. 62 (Jager 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
Jager v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 89 S.W. 62, 114 Mo. App. 10, 1905 Mo. App. LEXIS 276 (Mo. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

BROADDUS, P. J.

“It is alleged in plaintiff’s petition that on the 15th day of April, 1903, between the hours of five-thirty and six-thirty in the afternoon, the plaintiff was driving across Main street at the corner of Spring street, in an ordinary rock wag'on, drawn by two horses, intending to go south on Main street; and as he was crossing the tracks of the railway on said Main street, a south-bound car of appellant was so carelessly, recklessly and negligently run and operated by appellant, at such an undue and excessively rapid rate of speed, without ringing the bell or giving any other warning of approach, that it was run into- and against -the wagon in which plaintiff was riding, throwing him violently to the ground, the result of which plaintiff received a broken shoulder blade, an injury to his ankle, and body bruises; that defendant’s servants in charge of the car saw plaintiff and his wagon on the track, or by reasonable care could have seen him in time to have avoided injury to him.” Defendant’s answer was the general denial coupled with the plea of contributory negligence, to which plaintiff filed the usual reply.

The facts, as disclosed by the evidence, are these: Main street- in Kansas City runs north and south; Thirty-first and Thirty-second streets run east and west, crossing Main at right angles; between Thirty-first and Thirty-second streets is Spring street which enters into Main street from the east, but does not cross Main street. Main street is eighty feet in width and Spring-street is fifty feet; from Thirty-first street southward, it is- three hundred feet distant to Spring street; on the southeast corner of Spring and Main streets is situated a drug store running back eastward on the south side of Spring street, and at the north side of the drugstore there is a watering trough, which is sixty-four feet eight inches east of the east rail of defendant’s double track [15]*15railway in Main street; from the west rail of the west track to the curbing on the west side of Main street is twenty-three feet. Said watering trough is forty-two feet east of the curb line on the east side of Main street; and from the property line, or the comer of the drug store, the watering trough is twenty-six feet east. The width of .each track is over five feet, and the space between the tracks over five feet.

Plaintiff, at the time of his alleged injuries, was sixty-four years old, and Avas in the business of hauling rock. On the 15th day of April, 1903, the plaintiff, after hauling rock all day, at about six o’clock in the evening, drove from the north, on Main street, turned into Spring street, drove to the trough, watered his horses, and then, backed his wagon in a north-westerly direction, in order to make a turn to the right, so he could go on south on Main street. After making the turn, he drove in a southwesterly direction, angling across the street car tracks; as he started to go across the east track, a northbound car passed, and plaintiff crossed that track behind said north-bound car. When plaintiff started from the watering trough to go across the tracks, he looked north and saw a car about half Avay between Spring and Thirty-first streets, coming south, and also the car that struck him leaving Thirty-first street. He passed behind the north-bound car, and crossed the first or east track, and drove onto the west track, looked back and saw the first south bound car and he pulled his team and wagon onto the east track, and allowed that car to pass, and immediately pulled back to the right onto the west track, and on looking back as he went to go on that track, he saw the second south-bound car, seventy-five or eighty yards behind him; that is his version of the matter.

Plaintiff gives as a reason for not going straight across Main street that a number of wagons were standing in the street west of the tracks, and he drove southwesterly to get over on the west side of Main street to [16]*16go on south. He had driven from Twenty-sixth and Main, south on Main to Spring street, and crossed the tracks in order to get to the watering trough. Plaintiff says that he passed in front of the first car going north as he went from the watering trough west across the east track, and at that time he could see north on Main to Thirty-first street, and the south-bound car which hit him was then at Thirty-first street; and another southbound car was about half way between Thirty-first and Spring streets, and when he got partly on the west track he said he “throwed” his horses on the east side of the track and let that car pass. When that car passed him, he then “thr owed his horses on the west side and the other car came and come against the wagon.” There were two south-bound cars in the block north of Spring street, when he started to cross over; he got onto the west track, and then turned to the south and then east off that track to let the first south bound car pass, and immediately turned west again onto the west track, knowing the other car was coming right behind him. On this point he was questioned as follows:

“Q. Did you notice, when you turned to go over on the west side, where the second car was — the car that hit you — where was that, then, when you started to turn over? A. The second car what hit me? Q. Yes, sir; where was that, then? A. About thirty-five yards behind me. Q. That would be in feet, a little over a hundred feet? A. Yes, sir. Q. Somewhere near a hundred feet, at the time you turned to go back across the track again? A. Yes, sir. Q. When you turned out of the way of that car your horses were headed south, were they not? A. Yes, sir. Q. They were on the east track at that time? A. Yes, sir. Q. Before you turned them around and got them on the west track, did you look up to see whether there was any other car coming? A. Yes, sir. Q. Where was it then? A. It was about thirty or forty yards behind me at that time.” The fore[17]*17going is taken from appellant’s abstract and is admitted to be practically correct.

Tbe motorman testified that he saw plaintiff when the car started from Thirty-first street and that he saw him backing away from the water trough going south. Plaintiff all the while was in plain view of him. He says that he commenced watching plaintiff when he was within a half block from him. He also stated that the car was running at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour; and that he at that rate of speed could usually have stopped the car at the distance he was from plaintiff when he discovered his danger in time to have prevented striking him, but he was unable to do so on that occasion — but he does not give any reason why.

Plaintiff stated that he knew the car was coming but that he could not get off the track because other wagons were in the way, and that he signaled the motorman to stop. The evidence tended to show that the car was run at a rapid rate of speed. Plaintiff stated that they ran as fast as they could go, and it was shown that the force with which it struck was sufficient to kill one of plaintiff’s horses and carry the weight of the wagon and load —2,000 pounds — as some witnesses stated, “fifty feet.”

The judgment was for plaintiff and defendant appealed.

The defendant offered a demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence which was refused by the court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 S.W. 62, 114 Mo. App. 10, 1905 Mo. App. LEXIS 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jager-v-metropolitan-street-railway-co-moctapp-1905.