Murrell v. Smith

133 S.W. 76, 152 Mo. App. 95, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 971
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 5, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 133 S.W. 76 (Murrell v. Smith) 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
Murrell v. Smith, 133 S.W. 76, 152 Mo. App. 95, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 971 (Mo. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

NIXON, P. J.

The principal contention of the appellants on this appeal is that the trial court, by refusing their peremptory instruction, committed material error, because, they maintain, none of the ma[104]*104terial allegations in plaintiffs’ petition as to the negligence of the appellants were sustained by the evidence ; that the platform, the fall of which caused' the death of plaintiffs’ son, was not built for public use, and that its very construction and appearance was such as to give all persons notice that it was only built for exhibition purposes; that the deceased, voluntarily, for his own convenience, put it to a use for which he knew it was not intended, and a use which was not contemplated and would not have been anticipated by persons of ordinary prudence; and that the defendants were not required to protect the platform against such possible use, and assumed no duty to keep- it safe. The brief, and argument, of counsel for appellants are devoted almost exclusively to maintaining this contention, that under the facts of the case the plaintiffs were not entitled to recover and that the appellants were not liable for the boy’s death.

The controverted questions of fact have been submitted to a jury and settled against the claims of the appellants. The verdict of the jury was for the plaintiffs, and, if there is any substantial evidence in the record to support that finding, their verdict must be sustained. Our Supreme Court has emblazoned on the walls of the appellate courts their positive duty as to facts in negligence cases, that where' the facts are disputed, or the credibility of witnesses is drawn in question, or a material fact is left in doubt, or there are inferences to be drawn from the facts proven, the questions of negligence and contributory negligence should-be submitted to the jury. [Eckhard v. St. Louis T. Co., 190 Mo. 593, 89 S. W. 602; McKenzie v. United Rys. Co., 216 Mo. l. c. 22, 115 S. W. 13.] In the case of Westervelt v. St. Louis T. Co., 222 Mo. l. c. 334, 121 S. W. 114, the Supreme Court used this language: “But we will not meddle with that conflict of testimony. The genius of our law has wisely and quite relieved an appellate court from that burden, [105]*105at least. We neither hunger nor thirst after, nor assume, power to disturb the finding of twelve men.in the box sanctioned by one on the bench on a question of fact on which the testimony ran pro and con. Theirs (not ours) the duty to sift and winnow out the true from the false, to believe or disbelieve. ’ ’ The duty of a trial court, in refusing to give a peremptory instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence, must be determined from the proper application and in the light of the above decisions which are the law of this case and controlling.

The boy, Oliver Murrell, met his death, as we have stated, under a platform erected by and under the charge of the defendants’ managers in the very midst of the fair grounds. This public place where defendants fair was being held for the purpose of attracting and entertaining the people in order to promote their interests, was under the charge of the defendants’ agents, and was open and free to the public attending the carnival. This platform, as the evidence abundantly showed, was some four or five feet above the ground and was erected at a place selected by the defendants and in charge of them and on the grounds which had been advertised as the place for the principal acrobatic, spiritualistic and hypnotic attractions. There was no amphitheatre nor seats of any kind provided for the accommodation of the public which had been invited to the fair, and the large crowd of men, women and children thronged at will from side to side of the grounds and around the platform without let or hindrance. The space underneath was open to the free access of the children and there was nothing to show that they were not invited to go beneath it. During the morning and afternoon of the day on which the fair was held and for hours before the accident, from time to time, children, taking advantage of the open place, were seen to congregate underneath the platform, and made it a resort to eat candy, and pass [106]*106around underneath from side to side. Ice was stored under it, and sawdust; where the children would play.

The plaintiffs had accepted the invitation of the defendants and visited the fair, reaching there somewhere between six and seven o’clock in the evening. The mother was accompanied by her son, Oliver, her little girl, and a boy by the name of Sammy Hitchcock. Oliver had been with his mother in visiting the attractions of the fair, but left her to go to the west side of the platform in order to get better view of the trapeze performance, on his way home. Some fifteen minutes after he and Sammy Hitchcock left the mother, when the boys reached Campbell street, seeing they could not get through on account of the size of the crowd, went to the platform, and the way being open, went under it. While Oliver was beneath it, the trapeze performance commenced, a crowd rushed upon and surged against the platform, and it collapsed and fell upon him causing his death.

Under the conditions surrounding the entertainment and the manner in which the platform was constructed, or from its surroundings, there was no' reason why children might not think they had a right to go under the platform and play or pass through from side to side. Such an open space right in the heart of the fair grounds was naturally alluring and attractive to the childish instincts and disposition of a boy of the age of the deceased. Under these circumstances, should it be said that those in charge of the fair grounds owed no duty to those children, situated like the deceased was, and that they were not required as a matter of law to secure the platform above the heads of the children to make it free from the danger of falling and crushing them beneath its weight? The appellants contend that the open place beneath the platform was not intended for children, and that although they were invited to the fair grounds on which the entertainments were being given and might [107]*107go over the grounds at will and even look under the platform and see how inviting it was, hut the moment a child six- or eight years of age went beneath it for any purpose, he was straying obviously beyond the bounds of the defendants’ invitation to him and was consequently acting at his peril, and that the defendants were thereby released of all liability by reason of any accident that might befall him from the collapse of the platform. This contention is sought to be supported upon the authority of Judge Lamm in the case of Glaser v. Rotchschild, 221 Mo. 180, 120 S. W. 1, in which it is said: “In getting at the essence of and giving reasonable scope to the rules of law applicable to the liability of the owner for injuries received by an invitee, it has been well held that his license does not give him the right to roam at will, without further invitation, to out-of-the-way places on the premises, wholly disconnected from and in no way pertaining to the business in hand; for instance, to the roof from a curiosity to see a passing street pageant, to the garret to find what his prying eye may search out there, to the basement for a like purpose.” We cannot recognize the force of this statement as applied to the facts of this case.

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Bluebook (online)
133 S.W. 76, 152 Mo. App. 95, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 971, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murrell-v-smith-moctapp-1910.