Markowitz v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.

85 S.W. 351, 186 Mo. 350, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 322
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 15, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 85 S.W. 351 (Markowitz v. Metropolitan Street 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
Markowitz v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 85 S.W. 351, 186 Mo. 350, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 322 (Mo. 1905).

Opinion

VALLIANT, J.

— Plaintiff alleges that she suffered a personal injury in consequence • of a collision between a wagon in which she was riding and a street car of defendant. She sues for $5,000 damages, alleging that the collision was the result of defendant’s negligence.

The scene of the accident was in Fifth street between Walnut and Main in Kansas City. Fifth street runs east and west, Walnut and Main cross it at right angles running north and south; Walnut is east of Main. Between Walnut and Main streets and parallel to them, is an alley, which also crosses Fifth street at right angles. Defendant operates a double-track street railroad along Fifth street; a car going west runs on the north track, crossing Walnut, the alley and Main street. Just west of the alley on the north side of Fifth street is the city market.

On December 24, 1901, the plaintiff was seated beside the driver, a colored man, on the driver’s seat on an open one-horse spring wagon, driving through the alley northward, aiming for the market house. They emerged from the alley on the south side of Fifth street, drove across the south track, and just as the front wheel of the wagon got on or sufficiently near the south rail of the north track, a car of defendant going [354]*354west struck the wagon with a blow sufficient to break the shaft from the axle on that side, and the jar caused the plaintiff’s injury. She testified that the car struck the wagon “and it jolted very hard, and I went on the end of the seat and that gave me an awful pain in the back and I felt kind of funny in my whole body. Otherwise I would have went over on the left side on the street, but the colored boy held me back. And he helped me down from the wagon. I couldn’t sit there.”

The petition alleges negligence in four specifications :

“First, the motorman of said defendant in charge of said car negligently failed to stop the same in time to avoid said collision, which, by the exercise of ordinary care, he might have done.
‘ ‘ Second, the servants of said defendant in charge of said car negligently failed to ring any bells or to give other warning of the approach of said car.
‘ ‘ Third, the motorman of said defendant in charge of said car negligently failed to keep a vigilant watch ahead and negligently failed to observe said wagon on or approaching said north track in a position of danger in time to have stopped said car and thereby avoid said collision, which said motorman might have done had he been exercising ordinary care.
“Fourth, the motorman of said defendant in charge of said car negligently failed to stop the same within a reasonable time after he saw, or by exercising ordinary care, might have seen the dangerous situation of this plaintiff.”

The testimony on the part of the plaintiff tended to prove as follows:

It was a clear winter day. The car going west stopped at Walnut street to take on some passengers and then moved on its course; it was' going slowly, not to exceed four miles an hour. The street was crowded with vehicles and people. The wagon on which the [355]*355plaintiff was riding came ont of the alley into Fifth street, aiming northward across the tracks. The driver testified: “When we was coming ont through the alley between Walnut and Main we didn’t see any car at all; but when we got on the second track we seen the car about as far as from here over there . . . I couldn’t tell exactly how far, but anyhow, we were beckoning him to stop . . . for him to hold up, because I couldn’t go either forward or back, the people was ahead of me in the crowd and wagons behind me. . . . He just came right on up and hit the wagon and broke the shaft loose and jostled us both up.” Witness said he did not stop or check up at all when he came into the street from the alley and was going tolerably fast when he got on the north track, he was aiming to get out of the crowd. The car stopped in almost the same instant that it struck the wagon. It shoved the wagon about two feet.

The plaintiff herself testified that they saw no car until they were on the second track, the north track. She said: “It was awfully crowded with people and we looked and, of course, I did not see any car at all. Of course there was so many people in front of us and we drove right in and when we got to the second track I saw the ear and hallowed and screamed as much as possible and it looks to me like there was a car that struck the wagon and it jolted very hard.” She was asked how far the car was from her when she hallowed to the motorman, she said: * ‘ About as far as from here to that wall; about twenty-five feet. I couldn’t tell you exactly, I began to make motions and to hollow and scream and the rest of the people right in front of our wagon, they began to make motions to the motorman and he was keeping on going slowly.” She said that when they came ont of the alley they saw no car, that they could not see either east or west more than twenty-five feet, and when asked to explain why she could not see farther, seated as she was above the [356]*356heads of the people on the driver’s seat in the wagon, she said she eonld not explain it, but that twenty-five fb&lt east or west was as far as she could see. Her at-’ tention was called to her statements on a former examination in which she was asked if she could not see for the distance of a half a block, her answer being, “I suppose so; I couldn’t tell exactly; I saw quite a distance,” to which she replied, “Well, that is twenty-five feet.” She testified that her eyesight was good. She and the negro driver of her wagon testified that they did not hear any bell or gong. There was testimony tending to show that the jar of the collision caused serious injury to the plaintiff.

At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence the defendant asked an instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence, which the court refused, and exception was taken.

On the part of defendant the testimony tended to prove as follows:

The car stopped at Walnut, and then moved on westward, going slowly. It was a fine clear day, and there was nothing to prevent one seeing the car coming distant a block away. The track was slippery; at that point it was down grade and the motorman was moving cautiously. The wagon came out of the alley, the horse going at a trot, aiming straight across the'tracks, the driver and the plaintiff looking to the west. The motorman saw the wagon coming, and at once began ringing his gong, and when it seemed as if the driver intended to cross the north track in front of the car the motorman continued sounding the gong, hallowed at the driver, applied his brakes, reversed the power, turned on the sand, and used all the means at hand to stop the car and had brought it almost to a stop when the collision occurred.

The case was submitted to the jury, the verdict was for the defendant, the court sustained the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial on the ground that it had [357]*357erred in giving certain instructions for defendant. Defendant appeals.

If it should be conceded that the defendant was guilty of negligence in either of the three particulars first specified in the petition, still the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover in consequence thereof, because her own negligence contributed to produce the result. It was her wagon, the driver was her servant, and his negligence is chargeable to her.

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Bluebook (online)
85 S.W. 351, 186 Mo. 350, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/markowitz-v-metropolitan-street-railway-co-mo-1905.