Jenkins v. Wabash Railway Co.

73 S.W.2d 1002, 335 Mo. 748, 1934 Mo. LEXIS 446
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 17, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 73 S.W.2d 1002 (Jenkins v. Wabash Railway Co.) 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
Jenkins v. Wabash Railway Co., 73 S.W.2d 1002, 335 Mo. 748, 1934 Mo. LEXIS 446 (Mo. 1934).

Opinion

*754 ATWOOD, J.

— This is an action for damages brought under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act against the Wabash Railway Company and Arthur Lovell, its section foreman, on account of fatal injuries sustained by Wilbur F. Jenkins while in the company’s employ as a section man under Lovell and while being transported from one place of work -to another upon one of the company’s gasoline motor cars operated by LovelL

The petition was in two counts. The answer consisted of a general denial and pleas that decedent’s injuries were directly caused by his own negligence and that he assumed the risk. At the close of plaintiff’s evidence the defendants separately requested a peremptory instruction, in the nature of a demurrer to -the evidence, upon each count. The court refused those requested by the railway company and gave those requested by Lovell. Thereupon defendant railway company offered no evidence but rested its case and prayed the court to instruct the jury that “under the pleadings and evidence the plaintiff is not entitled to recover under the first count of the petition and your verdict should be for defendant on said count.” This instruction was refused. A similar instruction as to the second count of the petition was grayed by this defendant and refused'by the court. On submission of the case the jury found for defendant on the second count and for plaintiff iii the sum of $9000 on the first count. Judgment was rendered accordingly and from this judgment the railway company has apipealed. ' •

*755 It is conceded that the case falls within the provisions of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, but counsel- for appellant insist “that its demurrer to the evidence ought to have been given, for two reasons, first, because the plaintiff failed to allege or prove any negligence on the part of the defendant, and, second, because the deceased assumed the risk.”

The sufficiency of plaintiff’s petition was first challenged in appellant’s reply brief. It is there said that plaintiff’s original petition contained “no charge of negligence, except that the motor car ‘did carelessly and negligently run into an open switch, ’ ’ ’ and that plaintiff, therefore, failed to plead any negligence of defendants. This allegation, as fully set forth in the first count of plaintiff’s original petition, was that “decedent had nothing to do at said time and place with the management and'operation of said gasoline car; that while said gasoline motor car was being operated by defendants, the same did carelessly and negligently run into an open switch, which did cause said gasoline motor car to be instantly derailed, and to strike and run over deceased who' had been thrown from his position on said motor car to the track "bed by said violence, and did inflict on him serious and painful injuries, which resulted in his death later in the day.”

Where, as in this instance, attack upon the petition is delayed until after verdict every reasonable intendment will be indulged in favor of the sufficiency of the petition to state a cause of action. [Woods v. Moffitt (Mo. App.), 38 S. W. (2d) 525, 528.] Appellant would have us construe the words “the same” in the above pleadings as referring to the motor car instead of the defendants. To do so in the light of the context would be to assign to plaintiff the ridiculous intention of charging the motor car, the inanimate instrumentality operated by defendants, with negligence. Though inartifieially employed we construe the phrase to effectuate rather than destroy plaintiff’s obvious intent to charge defendants with negligence in operating the motor car under the circumstances mentioned: This is in harmony with the provisions of Section 1099, Revised Statutes 1929.

Furthermore, at the close of plaintiff’s evidence the court permitted him to amend his petition by inserting in the first count the words, “which had been by defendants carelessly and negligently left open, ’ ’ immediately after the above-quoted words “ did carelessly and negligently run into an open swittíh.” Defendants filed an affidavit of surprise and a motion for a continuance, which motion was by the court overruled. Appellant'then filed an amended answer consisting of a general denial, pleas that decedent’s injuries were the direct result of his own negligence' and that he assumed the risk, and a specific denial that the switch was carelessly left open. It thus appears that two distinct charges of negligence weré pleaded in the *756 amended petition upon which, issue was squarely joined by defendant railway company’s amended answer.

Counsel for appellant say that plaintiff failed to prove any negligence of the corporate defendant, and for that reason its requested peremptory instructions should have been given, because defendant Lovell’s demurrer to the evidence wag sustained and the assignment of negligence added by amendment was not submitted to the jury. These reasons do not convict the trial court of error in refusing the instructions. If there was any substantial evidence of negligence under the assignment brought in by amendment it is plain that the trial court committed no error in refusing defendant’s requested peremptory instructions in the nature of demurrers to the evidence even though such assignment was not thereafter submitted to the jury, as counsel on both sides apparently agree was the case.

As for the trial court’s action in giving defendant Lovell’s peremptory instructions at the close of plaintiff’s evidence, counsel for appellant do not claim that under the doctrine of respondeat superior, announced in McGinnis v. Bailway Company, 200 Mo. 347, 98 S. W. 590, and other eases, such discharge of the foreman discharged his .employer from liability for alleged negligence in the operation of the gasoline motor ear. Indeed, whatever may have been the view that impelled the asking and giving of these peremptory instructions, the railway company is now in no position to claim discharge on that account from the negligence originally pleaded because immediately thereafter it asked and the court gave'Instruction D-l recognizing the jury’s right to determine the question of defendant foreman’s negligence in operating said car, as follows:

“You are instructed that the right of the plaintiff, if any, to recover in this case on the charge that the motor car was operated in a careless and negligent manner, depends upon whether the defendant’s foreman was negligent. And unless you find from the evidence that the defendant’s foreman was negligent in operating said car, there can be no recovery by the plaintiff on such charge of negligence and you should not find for the plaintiff on that ground, under either count of the petition.”

In finally refusing defendant railway company’s requested peremptory instructions the trial court necessarily ruled that there was substantial evidence for the jury supporting either the.assignment of negligence in operating the gasoline motor car, or the assignment of negligence brought in by plaintiff’s amendment, or both assignments. Was there any such evidence?

It appears from the' record that the accident occurred at a switch east of Wakenda in Carroll County; Missouri. Appellant’s main line ran east and1 west through. Wakenda. North of this main line and east of the station was a passing track.

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73 S.W.2d 1002, 335 Mo. 748, 1934 Mo. LEXIS 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jenkins-v-wabash-railway-co-mo-1934.