Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Co. v. Caster

1965 OK 10, 410 P.2d 67
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 19, 1965
Docket40436
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1965 OK 10 (Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Co. v. Caster) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Co. v. Caster, 1965 OK 10, 410 P.2d 67 (Okla. 1965).

Opinions

JACKSON, Vice Chief Justice.

In the trial court, plaintiff Leah Caster sued the defendants, Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, and E. D. Simmons, for damages resulting from a railroad crossing accident in which Mrs. Caster’s husband was killed. Simmons was the engineer of the train which was involved in the accident. After $15,000.00 verdict and judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal.

In this court four propositions are presented, the first being that the court erred in overruling defendants’ demurrer to plainr tiff’s evidence and motion for directed ver-[69]*69diet, and the second being that there is no evidence of primary negligence on the part of defendants which was the proximate cause of the death of plaintiff’s decedent, but that the evidence showed that the accident was caused by the decedent’s own primary negligence. Since these propositions both go to the sufficiency of the evidence, we will consider them together.

The issues made up by the pleadings included, among others, allegations of negligence on the part of defendants in (1) maintaining its right of way at the crossing where the accident happened in such a way that the visibility of approaching motorists was limited by brush, grass and weeds which were permitted to grow there, and (2) failing to maintain a mechanical warning signal at the crossing, which was alleged to be heavily travelled, operating as a “feeder” for two federal highways and another state highway.

It is too well settled to require citation of authority that a general verdict by a jury is by implication a finding of every fact necessary to support it. On the two allegations of negligence mentioned, we find sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding. At the time of the accident, plaintiff’s decedent was driving east on Highway 33 near the north edge of the town of Hammon; defendant’s train was travelling generally south toward the intersection of the railroad with the highway. On the question .of visibility, the highway trooper^who investigated the accident testified that “bushes of some kind” would obstruct the vision of a traveller approaching from the west, as to any train that might be approaching from the north. He also testified that there was a tree which would be a “contributing factor of obstructing the view to the north”. The decedent’s son in law testified that the view to the north was obstructed by “a tree anyway, and then grass and plum thicket in the right of way”. A truck driver who crossed the railroad going west a few seconds before decedent’s vehicle, going east, was struck by the train, testified as follows:

“Q. Is there anything to block your view of the railroad track as you approached that crossing going down the hill to the west?
“A. Well, the track lays in kinda, it has been dug out and it lays low there.
“Q. Is the track in a cut?
“A. Yes, in a cut there.
“Q. * * * I will ask you as you are going back the other way on Highway 33, as you are going back to the gravel pit, as you approached this crossing is there anything to the north there to block your view as you looked up the track that day?
“A. Well, there was Johnson Grass and a plum thicket there, and then the train being in that cut makes it hard.”

We hold that the above noted evidence was sufficient to raise a question for jury determination as to whether the defendant railroad company had negligently maintained the crossing in such a way as to permit the visibility of motorists to become obstructed. On this question, plaintiff introduced two photographs of the crossing, and defendants also later introduced in evidence some 23 photographs of the scene, to which reference will be made hereinafter in our discussion of defendants’ proposition number four. See Oklahoma Transportation Co. v. Mitchell, 206 Okl. 295, 243 P.2d 350, wherein this court held:

“Where a law action is fairly tried to a jury and the evidence is in conflict, and the issues are submitted to a jury under fair instructions, the verdict of the jury and a judgment based thereon will not be disturbed on appeal.
“Where there is any competent evidence presented by the plaintiff reasonably tending to establish plaintiff’s cause of action alleged in his petition, defendant’s demurrer to the evidence and motion for a directed verdict should be overruled.”

[70]*70In this case, defendants did not object to any of the trial court’s instructions to the jury.

On the second allegation of negligence mentioned (failure to maintain a mechanical warning signal at the crossing) the law in this jurisdiction is stated in the second and third paragraphs of the syllabus in St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Prince, 145 Okl. 194, 291 P. 973, 71 A.L.R. 357, as follows:

“Where a crossing is unusually dangerous, because of its peculiar construction and situation and the amount of traffic passing thereover it is the duty of the railway company to exercise such reasonable care and take such precautions as common prudence would dictate, taking into consideration the nature of the crossing; and whether or not a given crossing is unusually dangerous is a question for a jury, unless only one conclusion could be drawn by all reasonable men from the evidence relative thereto.
“Whether ordinary care or reasonable prudence requires a railroad company to erect and maintain warning signs or other warning devices in addition to those required by statute at a crossing over a public highway in the country which is unusually dangerous is a question of fact for a jury.”

See also in this connection Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. Ware, 189 Okl. 345, 117 P.2d 123; and Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Richerson, 185 Okl. 560, 94 P.2d 934.

The evidence we have already summarized with regard to poor visibility was also pertinent on the question of whether the crossing was unusually dangerous. In this case, there was also a stipulation of the parties that a Highway Department Division Engineer, if present, would testify that the official traffic count for Highway 33, immediately east and west of the town of Hammon, was about 650 vehicles per day; and the evidence as to the status of Plighway 33 as a “feeder” for the other highways mentioned is not questioned.

Under these circumstances, we are unable to conclude that “only one conclusion could be drawn by all reasonable men” from the evidence on the question of whether the crossing was unusually dangerous and required the railroad, in the exercise of ordinary care, to maintain warning devices in addition to those required by 'statute.

On defendants’ first two propositions on appeal, we therefore hold that plaintiff’s evidence was sufficient to withstand defendants’ demurrer and motion for directed verdict, and that there was sufficient evidence of primary negligence by defendants which was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury. Oklahoma Transportation Co. v. Mitchell, supra. Such being the case, the jury’s implied finding that plaintiff’s decedent was not guilty of contributory negligence is binding on this court. Oklahoma Constitution, Art. 23, Sec. 6.

Defendants’ third proposition on appeal is that excessive damages were awarded by the jury, allegedly under the influence of passion and prejudice.

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Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Co. v. Caster
1965 OK 10 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
1965 OK 10, 410 P.2d 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-kansas-and-texas-railroad-co-v-caster-okla-1965.