Kappes v. Brown Shoe Co.

90 S.W. 1158, 116 Mo. App. 154, 1905 Mo. App. LEXIS 449
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 12, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 90 S.W. 1158 (Kappes v. Brown Shoe 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
Kappes v. Brown Shoe Co., 90 S.W. 1158, 116 Mo. App. 154, 1905 Mo. App. LEXIS 449 (Mo. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

GOODE, J.

In the tragic event which gave rise to this action eight' persons, among whom was the son of plaintiff, lost their lives. The event occurred January 13, 1904, at the defendant’s shoe factory on the corner of Eleventh and St. Charles streets in the city of St. Louis. Plaintiff’s deceased son, on the day he was killed, was between thirteen and fourteen years old. He was a son by plaintiff’s first marriage and his name was George Rottman. He had been working in the factory eight days. The factory building is seven stories high and an elevator plies between-the basement and the top floor. The elevator was operated by steam or electric power; by which is not disclosed. It was built for the carriage of freight; but in the'morning, at noon and at the quitting hour in the evening, the employees on the different floors were permitted to use it in going to and from their work. The elevator ran up and down in a shaft; it was strongly built of oak timbers and was somewhat in the form of a box car. As we understand, the elevator carriage or car had a doorway on one side, but no door attached to the car itself. The gates which closed the shaft and through which ingress and egress to and from the car were obtained, were stationary on the floors of the different stories of the building. This was true, at least, on the sixth floor where the disaster occurred. On that floor there was an open door or gate about six feet high, which gave access to the elevator shaft and was raised when the car was receiving or discharging a load and lowered when it was not. The gateway or opening into the shaft was twelve or fourteen feet high. The gate itself stood, when down, an inch or two from the floor. It was balanced by weights like a window sash; and was over-weighted, according to the estimates of witnesses, twenty-five pounds or more. That is to say, an upward [159]*159thrust strong enough to lift twenty-five pounds was required to raise the gate for entrance or exit from the car. The floor of the room extended about a foot inside the gate to the edge of the shaft in which the elevator ran. The oaken gate was covered by an iron grating over which a white cloth was stretched in the winter to keep out draughts. The room in the vicinity of the shaft was well lighted with electricity and so was the interior of the elevator. The interior light was plainly visible through the cloth, according to the testimony of all the witnesses but one. Albert Feuser, a boy who witnessed the accident, said he saw the light in the elevator as it rose to the sixth floor at the time the accident occurred; but could not see it while at that floor or ascending to the next one. A large number of employees, including plaintiff’s deceased son, worked on the sixth floor of the factory. At closing time in the evening, the employees in their hurry to get home, would crowd about the elevator gates on the different floors in order to go down on the first trip of the elevator. They had been warned frequently not to do this; but whether during the time plaintiff’s son worked in the factory, was uncertain. To prevent them from pushing against the gate, an iron gaspipe had been placed in sockets about a foot in front of the gate and four feet above the floor, and inclined toward the gate at an angle which permitted a person to enter the space between it and the gate only at one end. This expedient seems to have been rather ineffective, because the employees would take the bar away, climb' over and stoop under it. No accident had happened in the factory in connection with the use of the elevator by the employees until the occasion in question; though the elevator, constructed in the manner it was at the time, had been operated for more than five years. About 5:30 in the evening of the tragedy, from twenty to twenty-five of the employees of the factory were gathered about the gate on the sixth floor waiting to' descend. When the car came [160]*160up to that floor, the man in charge of it either was unable to lift the gate on account of the pressure of the crowd against it, or refused to lift it while the crowd was pressing. The testimony assigns both those reasons in explanation of his not raising it. He told the employees that when they got through pushing he would let them on the elevator; and after saying this, ascended to the seventh floor. While the elevator was at the seventh floor, three boys who were standing against the gate, raised it from three to four feet above the floor, went under, were immediately pushed into the shaft by the pressure of the crowd behind them and fell to the bottom. Other employees standing near stooped or, to use the word of the witnesses, “ducked,” under the gate and were likewise shoved into the shaft. This continued until nine persons had fallen, of whom eight were killed. The awful occurrence occupied only a few seconds, as almost immediately one workman standing near realized what was happening and shoved the employees back, thus preventing other deaths. Much of the testimony tends to show that some of those who entered the elevator shaft had to’ stoop under the iron bar in front of the gate, as well as under the gate itself; but there was some conflict about this matter; a witness or two stating that the bar was not in place at the time. George Rottman, plaintiff’s son, did not assist in lifting the gate, but was among the boys who went under it and fell into the shaft. He was in the second row of waiting employees. There were good stairways in the building running from the ground to the various floors, which the employees were privileged to use and which many did use. No one was compelled to go up and down in the elevator, but any one might do so if he desired. There was a slight discrepancy in the evidence as to what Johnson, the man in charge of the elevator, said to the crowd about the gate on the sixth floor when he refused to take them aboard. Some witnesses swore he exclaimed to the crowd to get away from the [161]*161gate, that he was going np to the' next floor. Other witnesses said he told the boys to get away from the gate so he conld raise, it, and others that until they got away from the gate he could not take them down. The witnesses agreed that he said something to indicate that he would admit no one .into the elevator until the pressure of the crowd on the gate had ceased. They agree also that all the employees who fell into the shaft stooped down in order to go under the gate. There was some testimony tending to prove that the last boys who fell, went under the gate in the belief that the elevator was waiting at the floor.

An ordinance of the city of St. Louis was introduced which required all power elevators to be in charge of persons not less than fifteen years old and of industrious and sober habits. This ordinance provided that whenever the owner of an elevator was notified by the city inspector of boilers and elevators that a person operating an elevator was incompetent to run it, or untrustworthy, the owner should at once replace the incompetent operator.

The foregoing was the substance of the testimony on which the court below directed the jury to return a verdict in favor of the defendant.

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Bluebook (online)
90 S.W. 1158, 116 Mo. App. 154, 1905 Mo. App. LEXIS 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kappes-v-brown-shoe-co-moctapp-1905.