McLaughlin Ex Rel. McLaughlin v. Marlatt

246 S.W. 548, 296 Mo. 656, 1922 Mo. LEXIS 183
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 30, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 246 S.W. 548 (McLaughlin Ex Rel. McLaughlin v. Marlatt) 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
McLaughlin Ex Rel. McLaughlin v. Marlatt, 246 S.W. 548, 296 Mo. 656, 1922 Mo. LEXIS 183 (Mo. 1922).

Opinions

By this action plaintiff seeks to recover damages for personal injuries sustained from the discharge of a fire arm in the hands of one Lewis Marlatt. The suit was instituted against the latter in the Circuit Court for Caldwell County, September 20, 1917. Subsequently, pursuant to written agreement of the parties, the venue was ordered changed and the cause was transferred to the Circuit Court for Livingston County. A trial in that court in January, 1919, resulted in a judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $4500. In due course defendant prosecuted an appeal to the Kansas City Court of Appeals. That court in an opinion concurred in by two of the judges held that the judgment of the trial court should be reversed and the cause remanded. The third member of the court was of the opinion that the decision was contrary to "the rule of decision, as to what is necessary to be shown in defense or exoneration from liability for the discharge of fire arms, as announced by the Supreme Court," in certain cases which were cited. The cause was accordingly certified here. Since the transfer of the case the death of the original defendant has occurred, and the cause has been revived in the name of his administrators.

The events giving rise to this controversy occurred August 23, 1916, on the farm of Lewis Marlatt, the *Page 663 original defendant. Marlatt was seventy years of age and a little hard of hearing. On the afternoon of that day he had been fishing in some of the streams on or near his premises. He had with him a single-barrel breech-loading shot gun. Foxes had been catching his chickens, and when he started home from the fishing grounds he concluded to go through a certain bottom on his farm, thinking he might get a shot at one of the marauders of his poultry yard. On his way he came across two young men, Whitehead and Franklin, who were engaged in cutting brush for him. Presently all three of them sat down on the ground and engaged in conversation. Just east of them there was a corn field of some four or five acres. The corn had been drilled, the rows running north and south. Between them and the corn there was a barbed-wire fence, consisting of three wires tacked on posts and trees; they were from fifteen to twenty feet from the fence, and the fence was about the same distance from the first row of corn. Whitehead and Franklin were about fifteen feet apart, and Marlatt was between them; Whitehead was on the north, and all three sat facing the west with their backs toward the fence and corn field. There were some scattered trees in their immediate vicinity, and between them and the fence and alongside and adjacent to the fence — perhaps on both sides — there was buckbush from three to four feet high. The corn, according to various estimates, was from four to six feet high; and along the edge of the field near the fence fox tail grass had grown up to a height of from twelve to eighteen inches, and was then in full head.

Plaintiff was a boy sixteen years old who lived with his mother and an older brother on a neighboring farm. Whitehead and Franklin were acquaintances of his; he knew where they were cutting brush on Marlatt's farm; and on the afternoon heretofore referred to he left home to go to where they were at work for the purpose of paying them a visit. He came from the east, and his *Page 664 route led him through the corn field just described. He had on blue overalls and a blue-and-white striped jacket and was wearing a "hickory" hat. The jacket and overalls were new; the hat he had been wearing since the middle of the summer. During his progress and before he emerged from the corn he reached a point where he was almost directly east of the place where Marlatt, Whitehead and Franklin were sitting talking, and within from 75 to 100 feet of them. With respect to what then occurred there is some conflict in the evidence. Plaintiff's version will be given first.

When plaintiff got to the edge of the corn field he heard some boys talking in the adjoining pasture; he recognized the voice of Franklin; he could not see the persons who were talking, because they were sitting behind some bushes, but he saw Franklin's cap. He stopped and listened, but could not understand what they were saying. He then stooped over, got a clod and threw it in their direction to attract their attention. He threw a second clod, and still failing to attract their notice, as he supposed, stooped over to pick up another clod. Just as he started to rise up he saw Marlatt with a gun, and Marlatt shot before he had time to halloo to him. On cross-examination plaintiff said that he was two or three rows from the edge of the corn field when he threw the clods; that he was within speaking distance of the parties, but did not say a word to them; that in throwing the clods it was not his purpose to scare them or play a practical joke on them, — he just wanted to attract their attention in that way; that he could not see them while they were sitting on the ground behind the bushes, but there was nothing to prevent their seeing him when they got up; that his body was below the tops of the corn when he was stooping over to get the clods; and that he was shot as he started to straighten up after getting the third clod. The main body of the charge of shot struck him on the right side of the head and face. He was severely injured and rendered practically *Page 665 blind. At the time of the trial he was six feet tall; his height at the time he was shot was something less than that, he was not able to state how much.

Marlatt testified:

"We sat down there and were talking, and pretty soon Whitehead said, `What is that?' and I didn't hear anything — I am a little hard of hearing — and he jumped up and said, `It is a fox; come here;' and I went and he said, `It is a fox; shoot,' and I thought it was a fox and I shot Mr. McLaughlin.

"Q. Did you see Mr. McLaughlin at the time? A. No, sir.

"Q. Did you know he was there? A. No, sir.

"Q. Did you know any human being was there? A. No, sir; no one but those two boys and myself.

"Q. Tell the jury when you looked when he suggested this to you, what you saw? A. The grass was about eighteen inches high and it was shaking; the ground was a little damp and I grew a little fox tail and grass, and the corn was a little thin there, and Whitehead said, `It is a fox; shoot.' and I supposed it was when I saw the grass shaking, and I shot. . . . .

"Q. You say this fox tail grass was growing in the corn? A. Yes, sir; it was low down.

"Q. How far was the corn from the fence? A. Three or four or five rows.

"Q. You could see the fox tail in the corn three or four or five rows? A. Yes, sir; the corn was thin.

"Q. You could see the fox tail there? A. Yes, sir.

"Q. You could see the fox tail grass in the corn three or four or five rows and it was moving? A. Yes, sir; something like that.

"Q. Did you look in any other direction than this fox tail when you shot; did you look up above the fox tail grass any? A. No, sir; I don't think I did.

"Q. If Corwin McLaughlin was standing up or stooped over with his hand to the ground — He was about six feet tall at that time? A. Something like that, I guess. *Page 666

"Q. Then his body would have been above the fox tail grass? A. He was neither standing up nor hunkered down, he was lying down.

"Q. What makes you say that? A. Because I couldn't see him in the grass.

"Q. Are you sure he was lying down; the reason you say that was because you didn't see him? A. Well, I know he was not standing up or I could have seen him.

"Q. If he had been standing up you could have seen him? A. Yes, sir. . . . .

"Q.

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Bluebook (online)
246 S.W. 548, 296 Mo. 656, 1922 Mo. LEXIS 183, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclaughlin-ex-rel-mclaughlin-v-marlatt-mo-1922.