Kimble v. St. Louis & Suburban Railway Co.

82 S.W. 1096, 108 Mo. App. 78, 1904 Mo. App. LEXIS 12
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 1, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 82 S.W. 1096 (Kimble v. St. Louis & Suburban 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
Kimble v. St. Louis & Suburban Railway Co., 82 S.W. 1096, 108 Mo. App. 78, 1904 Mo. App. LEXIS 12 (Mo. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

BLAND, P. J.

1. After dark, on October 11, 1900, plaintiff was driving his one-horse wagon east on Wash street and was travelling in defendant’s south-railway track in said street. A car travelling in the same direction on the same track, struck the rear énd of the wagpn and thnew plaintiff to the ground injuring him. He recovered a judgment in the circuit court for these injuries. Defendant appealed.

The petition charges several distinct acts of negligence to the defendant’s servants in charge of the ear. However, only one of these charges was relied upon at the trial as furnishing ground for a recovery. It is as follows:

“Defendant through its agents and"servants in charge of and managing said car, negligently, carelessly, maliciously and wantonly failed to keep a sharp lookout ahead and bring said car to a stop in time to prevent said car striking plaintiff’s wagon, as required by the ordinance of the city of St. Louis, regulating the running of street cars.”

The ordinances referred to were not offered or read in evidence and there is no evidence of malice or [82]*82wantonness on the part of defendant’s servants in charge of the car.

The instruction upon which the verdict was rendered in plaintiff’s favor is as follows:,

“1. If they believe from the evidence that the plaintiff at the time he was struck and injured by defendant’s ear, was driving in an eastwardly direction over and upon the east-bound track of the defendant’s electric railway upon Wash street, at a point near Eighteenth and Wash streets, in this city, after dark, on the evening of the eleventh day of October, 1900 ; and if they further believe that the employees of the defendant in charge of said car could have seen aperson driving along said track at said place at said time, and if they further believe that said street, to-wit, Wash street, along which plaintiff was driving, was at said time and place a public street, and if they further believe that the plaintiff while driving along defendant’s tracks at said time and place became in imminent danger of being struck by defendant’s said car and defendant’s employees in charge of said car became aware of plaintiff’s danger of being struck in time to enable them by the exercise of ordinary care to have stopped said car and to have averted the collision of said car with plaintiff’s cart or wagon; or if the jury believe from the evidence that said employees in charge of said car by the exercise of ordinary care could have discovered the plaintiff’s danger of being struck by said car in time to have stopped said car and averted said collision with plaintiff’s wagon after they became aware of plaintiff’s danger, and they failed to exercise such care and stop said car in time to avert said collision and that by reason of such failure to exercise such ordinary care the said car was not stopped in time after they became aware of plaintiff’s danger, to avert the collision and the plaintiff was struck and injured by said car, then the jury will find for the plaintiff though the jury may he[83]*83Heve that plaintiff was guilty of negligence in driving upon defendant’s tracks at said time and place.”

It is contended by defendant that the evidence did not warrant this instruction and that its instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence, offered at the close of plaintiff’s case and again at the close of all the evidence, should have been given. This contention necessitates some examination of the evidence heard at the trial.

The answer set up contributory negligence as one of the defenses.

Plaintiff testified as follows:

“I was driving very rapidly to get home at a certain hour so I could meet the man who I did a job for, to get. my money, and I was kind of looking out to give ’em a good clear cut off so they could pass me and not touch me, and I was looking back so I could see ’em any distance, so I could get off, but when I discovered the car, and before I could turn my horse out it was just like a gunshot to me.

“Q. What are you talking about; what was like a gunshot? A. The car when it run into me. Whilst driving on rapidly I looked back and I saw a light, and just as I saw a light I was sitting down near my horse so I could kick him up and hold the lines and direct him any way 1 wanted to, and just as I saw the car I directed my horse and did all I could do to get out of the way, but the car struck me at the time. ... I was attempting to turn out when I saw the car.”

That he looked back a minute before he was struck and did not see the car; that he did not hear the car coming; that several cars going west on the north track passed him and that he knew cars passed over both tracks at frequent intervals.

Eobert Dickson testified for plaintiff, that he saw the collision; that plaintiff was trying to drive off the track when he was struck; that he was once a street-car conductor for about eight months and estimated the [84]*84•speed of the ear at fifteen miles per hour; that the car ran from ten to twelve feet after it struck the wagon.

It was shown that the grade of the street where the collision took place was slightly ascending. It is also shown that the headlight of the car was lighted and the car itself was lighted by electricity.

The conductor testified that by the beams of light from the headlight, a man could be seen twice the length of the courtroom (dimensions of the room not given); that the car, at the time of the collision, was running at a speed of about seven miles per hour. The motorman in charge of the car testified that he did not see the wagon until the car was within fifteen feet of it and that it was then too late to stop the car to avert the collision; that he was running the car at a speed of from six to eight miles per hour and could not have stopped it with safety to the passengers, in less than from forty-five to fifty feet; that when he discovered the wagon, he put on the brakes and reversed the power and did all that could be done to stop the car. Two expert witnesses testified that, if the car was running at a speed of fifteen miles per hour, it could not have been stopped in less than from one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and forty-five feet; that if it was running at eight miles it could have been stopped in a space of from forty-five to fifty feet.

Plaintiff testified that the night was not a dark one, that it was clear but the street lights were not lighted. Witnesses for defendant testified that the night was dark and foggy and there were no street lights.

It was admitted that a city ordinance prohibited a speed of more than ten miles per hour east of Grand avenue. (The collision took place east of Grand avenue.)

Wash street is paved with asphalt and there is a space of about eight feet between the railway track and ■ the curb.

In McGauley v. St. Louis Transit Company, 179 [85]*85Mo. 583, 79 S. W. 461, the Supreme Court held: “Where plaintiff drove his wagon on the track of defendant street railway company at a point where he might have driven in the street outside of the track, and, though it was dark and the street was not lighted, continued on the track for a short distance of from three blocks to a quarter of a mile without looking back until a car was within less than a block, he was guilty of contributory negligence, as a matter of law.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Chenoweth v. Sutherland
129 Mo. App. 431 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1908)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 S.W. 1096, 108 Mo. App. 78, 1904 Mo. App. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kimble-v-st-louis-suburban-railway-co-moctapp-1904.