Moore v. St. Louis Transit Co.

126 S.W. 1013, 226 Mo. 689, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 86
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 30, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 126 S.W. 1013 (Moore v. St. Louis Transit 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
Moore v. St. Louis Transit Co., 126 S.W. 1013, 226 Mo. 689, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 86 (Mo. 1910).

Opinions

FOX, J.

This cause is now pending in this court upon appeal on the part of the defendant from a judgment, in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant, for personal injuries, in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis.

This action is one for. damages on account of personal injuries claimed to have been received by respondent on the 17th day of May, 1902, in a collision of two street cars being operated by appellant in the city of St. Louis.

The petition of the plaintiff alleges in due form the details of the manner in which the accident occurred, which is followed by appropriate allegations alleging the specific acts of negligence which were the proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff.

It is apparent from the disclosures of the record that the main controversy in this cause is as to the sufficiency of the allegations in the petition, that is, whether or not the nature and character of the injuries alleged, which were received by .plaintiff, are broad enough to warrant the introduction of proof as to the loss of sexual desire on the part of the plaintiff; hence, it is essential that we reproduce, as applicable to that proposition, the allegations of the petition wherein the nature and character of the injuries re[695]*695ceived are set forth. Following the allegations of negligence, the petition continues: “Whereby plaintiff was thrown down, causing serious injuries to his bach, legs, kidneys and nervous system, and causing many bruises and contusions upon his body and head, from.which injuries plaintiff has suffered great bodily harm and mental anguish, and still suffers such bodily pain and mental anguish, and will continue to suffer such bodily pain and mental anguish for the rest of his life.”

The answer of the defendant in this cause was simply a general denial.

The propositions urged by learned counsel before this court do not require an examination of all the testimony developed upon the trial; hence, it can serve no good purpose, at this time, to make a detailed statement of such testimony, but such of the evidence as may be essential to. make reference to in the proper solution of the questions presented to us, will be given attention during the course of the opinion.

At the close of the evidence the court instructed the jury and the cause was submitted to them. The jury returned a verdict assessing respondent’s damages at ten thousand dollars. Timely motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment were filed, and by the court overruled. Judgment in accordance with the verdict having been entered of record, the defendant in due time and proper form prosecuted its appeal to this court, and the record is now before us for consideration.

OPINION.

Upon the record before us learned counsel for appellant assign and urge three grounds as a basis for the reversal of this judgment. They may be briefly stated as follows:

[696]*696First: The court erred in overruling appellant’s motion filed before the commencement of the trial, to quash the array of jurors.

Second: The court erred in permitting respondent upon the trial to testify to the loss of sexual passion, and in refusing to strike such testimony from the record on motion of appellant.

Third: The verdict of the jury is excessive.

We will give the complaints of the appellant, in the order named, such attention as in our opinion the importance of the questions presented demand and merit.

I.

This case was pending for trial at the December term, 1902, of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis. A jury of eighteen was qualified, and then the record discloses that the cause was continued to February 5, 1903, being a day during the February term. The hill of exceptions shows that the continuance was at the request of appellant’s counsel on account of sickness, and that by consent of all parties the panel of eighteen jurors was directed by the court to appear in court on February 5th, the day to which the cause was continued. The record proper is silent as to any action of the court or of counsel relative to the jury. No exceptions to the action of the court were preserved by either party at the December term, 1902. On the 5th day of February, 1903, the day on which the taking of testimony was begun, appellant filed a motion to quash the panel of eighteen jurors, for the reasons, as alleged in the motion, that after the trial of said cause had commenced at the December term and the eighteen jurors had been examined and impaneled, the court ordered that the cause be continued to February 5,1903, and ordered and directed said jurors to attend on that day, which said order, it is averred, was illegal, void and of no force and effect, for the reason that the [697]*697terms of said jurors expired by operation of law upon tbe adjournment of the December term. The prayer embraced in the motion was as follows: “'Wherefore defendant says that it is entitled to a venire for a special jury as by the statute of the State provided, and as prayed for on the 21st day of February, 1903, and during the first day of said February term.”

It is earnestly insisted on the part of the appellant that the statement in the bill of exceptions that both parties to the cause consented for the panel of eighteen jurors, after they had been examined, qualified and impaneled, to return on February 5th, has no place in the record, for the reason that there was no record of such fact made, either' on the record proper or by a term bill of exceptions. If this is true and such order was made without the consent of parties, then it is sufficient to say that it was manifestly incumbent upon the party desiring to preserve exceptions to the action of the court, to have done so at the time, and to have taken such steps as would result in preserving such exceptions and making them a part of the record.

In our opinion it follows from the disclosures of the record that appellant’s motion to quash the panel came too late. It should have interposed its objections and preserved its exception to the action of the court at the December term by filing a term bill of exceptions. The motion of appellant is based on what is termed a void and illegal order of the court made at the December term. The record is silent as to whether or not any evidence was offered at the February term by appellant to sustain such motion. Doubtless if there had been any evidence offered it would have related entirely to what took place on the day the cause was continued from said December term, 1902, to February 5, 1903. There is an entire absence from the record before us of anything except the prayer of the motion to show that appellant asked for a special jury [698]*698at the February term in accordance with the provisions of section 6566, Revised Statutes 1899.. Clearly, the mere allegation in the prayer of the motion that appellant had prayed for a special jury on the 21st day of February, 1903, and during the first day of said February term, does not prove itself. It should at least have been shown by some satisfactory proof, either by record1 or other competent evidence, and to avail the appellant of such showing it should have been embraced in the bill of exceptions. The only evidence in the record bearing on the motion shows that the panel of eighteen jurors qualified at the December term, 1902, were ordered, by consent of both parties, to return on February 5, 1903, that being a day during the February term.

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Bluebook (online)
126 S.W. 1013, 226 Mo. 689, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-st-louis-transit-co-mo-1910.