Lauck v. Reis

274 S.W. 827, 310 Mo. 184, 1925 Mo. LEXIS 525
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 30, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 274 S.W. 827 (Lauck v. Reis) 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
Lauck v. Reis, 274 S.W. 827, 310 Mo. 184, 1925 Mo. LEXIS 525 (Mo. 1925).

Opinions

Action to recover damages for alleged personal injuries occasioned by a collision between an automobile, owned and driven by defendant, and plaintiff, near the intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Dolman Street in the city of St. Louis, about 8:15 P.M. on March 14, 1922. Lafayette Avenue is an east-and-west street and Dolman Street is a north-and-south street. It is admitted by the respective parties that both are public streets in St. Louis. There is a double-track street-car line on Lafayette Avenue, the tracks being located approximately in the center of the roadway. Lafayette Avenue is paved with asphalt. A plat in evidence shows the distance between the south rail of the south-car track (used by east-bound street cars) and the south curb-line of Lafayette Avenue to be thirty-two feet. The established and regularly-used stopping-point for east-bound street cars is a point on Lafayette Avenue *Page 189 opposite an iron pole located at the south curb-line 64.5 feet west of the west curb-line of Dolman Street. The iron pole is marked with a yellow band, denoting the point of stoppage of the street cars. Plaintiff was a man fifty-six years of age at the time of his injury. His evidence tends to show that on the evening of March 14, 1922, accompanied by his niece, Miss Angeline Lauck, a Mr. Carl and a Miss Maag, he visited a sick brother at the City Hospital some two blocks east of the locusin quo. Shortly after eight o'clock, the four persons left the hospital and walked two blocks west on the north side of Lafayette Avenue to near West Dolman Street, where they crossed over from the north side of Lafayette Avenue and walked southwardly across the car tracks, intending to board an east-bound Bellefontaine car. Plaintiff was slightly in advance of his three companions, and, seeing a street car approaching from the west, he signaled the car to stop, the street car slowed down and stopped when plaintiff had reached, or had about reached, the usual stopping-place north of the painted iron pole, and the conductor threw the door open to permit the passengers to board the rear platform. Plaintiff then discovered the car was a Tower Grove instead of a Bellefontaine line car, whereupon he motioned the conductor to proceed. While plaintiff was three or four feet south of the cast-bound car track and opposite the pole denoting the street car stopping place, and almost instantly after plaintiff had given the conductor the signal to proceed, plaintiff was struck by defendant's east-bound automobile, knocked down, dragged and run over. He was taken from under the automobile, driven by defendant to the home of a physician, where first-aid treatment was administered, and then taken by defendant to plaintiff's home. There had been some rain during the twenty-four hours preceding the time of plaintiff's injury, but plaintiff's witnesses testified that it was not raining at the time and that the street was dry at the time and place in question. There is a city street light at the southwest corner of the street intersection, which *Page 190 was lighted at the time. The evidence of plaintiff's witnesses tended to show that defendant's automobile was traveling at the rate of twenty miles per hour at the time of the collision with plaintiff and that plaintiff was dragged a distance of eighty feet before the automobile was stopped. The point where the automobile finally stopped and plaintiff was taken from beneath, was fixed as being very near a physical object, a sewer valve, identified by the witnesses as being located in the intersection of the two streets ten feet east of the west curb-line of Dolman Street and 10.5 feet north of the south curb-line of Lafayette Avenue. The sewer valve, as shown by the plat in evidence, is located 74.5 feet cast of the regular street car stopping-point. Defendant's automobile stopped with its forepart headed or pointed north in Dolman Street. Plaintiff and his companions all testified that they heard no horn or other warning signal given by defendant's automobile at the time, or prior to the collision. Plaintiff testified that, when he stepped across the tracks, he looked and listened for the approach of automobiles from the west, but did not see any automobile coming from the west. The street car had started, but had not passed plaintiff, when he was struck. Testimony was adduced that a Ford truck, similar to defendant's automobile, could be stopped on a dry street with the grade of Lafayette Avenue in mind with safety while running twenty miles per hour within ten to fifteen feet, and if traveling ten miles per hour could be stopped within seven to nine feet.

Plaintiff pleaded and proved three general ordinances of the city of St. Louis effective at the time. One provides: "Drivers of motor vehicles of all kinds shall, when approaching a crossing . . . on a public street, sound their signals in such a way as to give a warning to other vehicles and to pedestrians of their approach." Another provides: "No automobile, motor vehicle, . . . shall be moved or propelled along, over or upon any public street, avenue, boulevard or other public place, so as to endanger the life or limb of *Page 191 any person or the safety of any property, and shall not in any event, while upon any such street, avenue, boulevard, or public place, be moved or propelled at a greater rate of speed than eight miles per hour in the business portions of the city, and not greater than ten miles per hour on the other portions thereof." Another provides: "A vehicle, except when passing a vehicle ahead, shall keep as near the right-hand curb as possible."

Defendant testified in his own behalf: "It rained when I left. The surface of Lafayette Avenue was wet. I was going east on the right-hand side. After I crossed Eighteenth Street the right-hand wheels of my automobile were about ten or twelve feet from the south curb. As I approached Dolman Street I was about the same distance from the curb. As I approached, coming down towards Dolman Street, I saw people in the street close by, or to the south of the east-bound car track. At that time a street car was near Dolman Street. As I approached I saw a man walking directly southeast. When I first saw him he was about twenty-five feet from the south rail of the east-bound car track. About twenty-five feet from the curbstone, out in the street I mean. From the car track I should judge about seven feet; between six and seven feet. He was six or seven feet, and he was walking southeast. At that time I was about sixty or seventy feet away from him. I sounded my horn the minute I saw him; between about sixty or seventy feet, I sounded my horn. And my machine continued on. When I realized Mr. Lauck wasn't going to stop I was about four or five feet away from him. I stopped and applied my brake. The condition of the street was wet. When I applied the brake and stopped, the rear end of my car turned, skidded from putting on the brake. The machine came in contact with Mr. Lauck. After I struck him it moved about four or five feet. Mr. Lauck said it was an unavoidable accident and it was as much his fault as it was my fault, and he thought there was no use of having me arrested. That conversation was at his home that evening, in the presence of his wife and *Page 192 his family." Cross-examination: "When I first saw Mr. Lauck wasn't going to stop, I threw my machine in neutral — I coasted. Gradually I put on my brakes as I coasted. When I saw he wasn't going to stop I slacked up; I applied my brake. I saw he was in a distance of about around sixty or seventy feet. I didn't know if he was going to stop or not, as I gave him the horn. It was at no crossing. When I saw he wasn't going to stop, I was about four or five feet away from him.

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Bluebook (online)
274 S.W. 827, 310 Mo. 184, 1925 Mo. LEXIS 525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lauck-v-reis-mo-1925.