Mathew v. Wabash Railroad

115 Mo. App. 468
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 3, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 115 Mo. App. 468 (Mathew v. Wabash Railroad) 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
Mathew v. Wabash Railroad, 115 Mo. App. 468 (Mo. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

SMITH, P. J.

— This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries received by plaintiff! in consequence of the negligence of defendant. The negligence alleged in the petition is, “that defendant by its servants moved its said engine and its cars up to and against the still car in which plaintiff was seated, without due care or caution, negligently and carelessly, and with unduly and unreasonably great swiftness, speed and suddenness, the defendant’s moving engine and cars striking the still car with overgreat force and violence, unreasonably and greatly jarring the same throughout. That this plaintiff then sitting in the still car and in the exercise of reasonable care was by the shock of that collision, forced and jammed back against the seat in which she was sitting and against the sides and framework thereof, with such violence that this plaintiff’s flesh on her back, legs and hip was hurt and bruised; and her internal organs were disarranged and displaced and were jarred and bruised so that they have ever since failed and refused to perform their functions. That in consequence thereof, and in order to save her life, the plaintiff’s ovaries have been removed and a surgical operation has been performed by which the faeces is made to pass and has now for weeks passed from the bowels out through an opening cut in the front of the abdomen instead of through the natural channel, and plaintiff has endured the most intense pain and suffering.”

• The answer was a general denial coupled with which were two special defenses, that is to say: (1) that the plaintiff’s physical condition did not result from the negligence of the defendant but from a pre-existing injury and disease; and (2) that the jarring and jolting of the [471]*471defendant’s train at the time of and place when and where the injury complained of happened was unavoidable by reason of the coupling apparatus then used and required tp be used by an act of Congress of March 2, 1893.

There was a trial in which plaintiff had judgment and defendant appealed. An examination of the evidence has convinced us that it was ample to entitle plaintiff to a submission of the case. Nor do we discover as between the allegata and probata that there is any fatal lack of correspondence.

The defendant contends that plaintiff’s first instruction was erroneous in that while it undertook to cover the entire case it excluded from the consideration of the jury the two special defenses pleaded by its answer; or, in other words, it excluded from the jury the consideration of the evidence tending to show that plaintiff had no right to recover. If the rule declared by Judge Scott in Clark v. Hammerle, 27 Mo. l. c. 70. and emphasized by the majority in Sullivan v. Railway, 88 Mo. 169, had not been overthrown in the later case of Owens v. Railway, 95 Mo. 169, and in Hughes v. Railway, 127 Mo. 447, this contention would not be baseless. The rule now obtaining in this State is that where a, series of instructions taken in their entirety present a full and complete exposition of the law applicable to every phase of the case and a verdict is returned thereon, it will be upheld even though when taken separately such instructions may be incomplete and subject to criticism. In such case there can be no necessity for qualifying each by reference to the others. They qualify themselves. The defendant’s third and fourth given submitted the special defenses pleaded, and so the instructions when taken in their entirety cover every phase of the case and thus meet the requirements of the rule. McMahon v. Express Co., 132 Mo. 641, and Goetz v. Railway, 50 Mo. 472, cited by defendant, decide nothing at variance with the Owen and Hughes cases already referred to. In the former (the [472]*472McMahon and Goetz cases) it was ruled that an instruction in itself erroneous cannot he supplied, but one that gives but part of a cause may bé; and this ruling is not repugnant to that made in the latter.

The defendant further objects that the action of the court in giving the plaintiff’s instruction which authorized a finding for plaintiff for any necessary expenses incurred by her for the treatment of her injuries was erroneous for the reason that there was no evidence adduced in support of it. After looking at the testimony of plaintiff herself and that of Dr. Riegel, one of her physicians, and Helena Rowe, her nurse, relating to the extent and value of the medical and hospital services rendered plaintiff, we must conclude that the same was quite sufficient to justify the giving of the instruction. The evidence fully met the requirement of the rule laid down in the adjudged cases in this State. [Mirrielees v. Railway, 163 Mo. 470; Smith v. Railway, 108 Mo. 251; Robertson v. Railway, 152 Mo. 393; Morris v. Railway, 144 Mo. 500.]

The defendant further objects that the court erred in giving plaintiff’s fourth and fifth instructions. The fourth told the jury that the use of a railway passenger carrier was not confined alone to persons who were physically sound, but was open also to those ailing and infirm within reasonable degrees, and that whether or not plaintiff was in reasonable physical condition to travel by defendant’s railroad from and to the places mentioned in the petition, if the defendant has used proper care as defined in other instructions, was for the jury under the evidence to decide. The fifth went a step further and told the jury that if plaintiff was not entirely well at the time she received the injury, but yet was reasonably able to have made the said trip without injury had defendant used proper care as defined in other instructions, then if it (the jury) found the issues submitted by plaintiff’s other instructions, the plaintiff was entitled to recover for the “increase of her [473]*473former ailments, if any, and for such new injuries, if any, as it might believe resulted directly from the improper coupling, if any.” Whether the plaintiff was sound or infirm in health at the time she received the injuries of which she complains, it was the duty of defendant in the management and movement of the train on which she Avas then riding as a passenger to exercise the utmost diligence and care of very prudent persons. [Sweeney v. Railway, 150 Mo. 401; O’Connel v. Railway, 106 Mo. 484; Leslie v. Railway, 88 Mo. 55.] And if while exercising such care in the movement of its train the plaintiff received the injuries of which she complains, there would be no liability.

It is suggested by the defendant that it had no notice of the plaintiff’s infirmities at the time of the receipt of her injury; assuming, as we must, that this was so, then the plaintiff was entitled to the same general degree of high care which was the right of all passengers. The effect of notice of the passenger’s infirmities is to increase the measure of the carrier’s duty. When there is no such notice it owes him no other or higher duty than it does to the other passengers who are not. infirm. [Hanks v. Railway, 60 Mo. App. 274; Deming v. Railway, 80 Mo. App. 152; Fleming v. Railway, 89 Mo. App. 140; Owens v. Kansas City, 95 Mo. 169.] The physical condition of the plaintiff in no way diminished the liability of the defendant. [Brown v. Railway, 66 Mo. 588.]

It is further objected that the latter of said instructions (the fifth) authorized the jury to find for the increase of former ailments and for such new injuries as had been occasioned by the accident.

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Bluebook (online)
115 Mo. App. 468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mathew-v-wabash-railroad-moctapp-1904.