Nagle v. Laclede Gas Light Co.

152 S.W. 415, 169 Mo. App. 243, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 386
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 14, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 152 S.W. 415 (Nagle v. Laclede Gas Light Co.) 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
Nagle v. Laclede Gas Light Co., 152 S.W. 415, 169 Mo. App. 243, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 386 (Mo. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, P. J.

(after stating the facts).— These are the facts in the case. The sole question submitted to us and which we shall consider is, whether they authorized the submission of the case to the jury, or that being done, whether, on all the evidence, they are sufficient to sustain the verdict. Counsel for appellant argues that even on the petition itself, inasmuch as plaintiff’s excuse is that he did not “fully understand” the danger, that he has pleaded himself out of court; that this, in itself, is insufficient as an excuse for an assumption of risk. Without considering this as a matter of pleading, or in that aspect, but looking at'it in connection with the facts in the case, we are inclined to think that the criticism is hardly to be sustained. The rule is that if one fully conscious, of the danger, assumes the risk and is injured, he cannot recover, and it may be said that if he did not fully realize it, he ought to recover. But we do not pass on the petition. We are confining ourselves here to the evidence and considering the point made as to its sufficiency or insufficiency to sustain the verdict.

[254]*254Preliminary to inquiry into this, however, there is a question duly raised by counsel for respondent as to the failure of the abstract to show that the motion for a new trial was filed during the term at which the judgment was rendered. For lack of this appearing in the record or in the abstract, counsel for respondent claims that there is nothing before us for consideration but the record proper. We think this objection has been overcome by what took place in this court after the case reached us. Counsel for appellant suggesting diminution of the record, certiorari duly issued to the clerk of the circuit court, as provided by section 205-2, Revised Statutes 1909, to send up a complete record. The clerk thereupon filed a certificate which, by stipulation of counsel, was accepted in lieu of a complete transcript and by consent, the record and abstract were amended, so that it now appears that on the 2d of April, 1910, and during the February, 1910, term of the circuit court, an order was entered of reqord in the circuit court, continuing all demurrers, motions and causes, then pending until the next term of the court. By the record it appears that the judgment was rendered on March 8, during the February term, 1910, of the* court and that the motion for new trial was filed on March 10, 1910. There is, therefore, no question but that it was filed within the four days provided by statute. The question then is, did March 10 fall within the February term of the court, the transcript not reciting that in so, many words. We have held that it not appearing that the motion for new trial had been filed at the term at which the judgment was rendered, proceedings in the cause, outside of those shown by the record proper, were not open to our review, and that while we take judicial notice of the commencement of a term of court we cannot do that as to its ending. [See Breimeyer v. Star Bottling Co., 136 Mo. App. 84, 117 S. W. 119.] In that case there was not only no recital that the motion had been filed [255]*255at the same term at which the judgment was rendered, hut nothing in the record to inform us as to that or from which we could determine when the term ended. In the case at bar we have facts in the record as amended, from which we can determine when the February term ended. As stated the motion for a new trial was- filed on March 10, 1910, two days after the rendition of the - judgment. By the amended transcript we are advised that the February, 1910, term of the court did not end until April 2, 1910'. Hence we have here before us in the record evidence from which we can with certainty determine that when the motion for a new trial was filed, the February, 1910, term had not elapsed. [See Ray County Savings Bank v. Hutton, 224 Mo. 42, 123 S. W. 47; Nickey v. Leader, 235 Mo. 30, 138 S. W. 18.] The bill of exceptions containing the evidence and proceedings in the case is therefore before us for our consideration.

Turning then to the consideration of the facts, as they there appear, and which we have set out practically in full, we are unable to sustain the verdict and judgment in this case. It is clear that plaintiff was a man of full age, forty-five years, and an experienced pipe fitter, one who had worked for defendant around this station for something over four years. It is also clear by Ms own testimony, that it was. considered dangerous to venture down into this valve room, as we may call it, alone, if the gas pipes were leaking. He had been warned of that danger. He knew that under the rules of the company, and by the practice of its employees, repairs of leaks always had been made by at least two men,- generally three; that when it was necessary to go into this place to stop leaks, a respirator was used by the man who went into the pit. His excuse, that he was not fully aware of the danger, is not supported by the evidence in the case. He knew that if there was a leak it was not only against the rule of the company, but against its practice, for one man [256]*256to attempt to stop a leak alone. The danger of going down alone, was therefore one of which he had been warned and was obvious. The claim of plaintiff, when analyzed, really is, that knowing the danger and the risk, he thought he would take a chance. This will not relieve one from his contributory negligence.

So much as to the case, if the displacement of the plug is to be classed as a leak. But it was not that, technically, nor as considered by the plaintiff himself or as treated by the company. It was the not unusual ease of a plug blowing out. There is not only no evidence in the case to indicate that the employer or its representatives had either any knowledge or any reason to believe that plaintiff, in disregard of positive directions to the contrary, would assume the risk of going alone to replace a plug; nor are there any facts in evidence, even assuming that the defendant, the employer and its representatives, knew or expected that the watchman or other employees, when a valve came out of the pipes, would go down alone to replace it, that he thereby incurred any risk of injury or ill effect from doing that. Plaintiff’s own testimony was that he had done that on many occasions without any injury. The testimony of the superintendent immediately in charge of the work was that it had been done on many occasions without any ill effect. Plaintiff himself testified that on this occasion the first time he went down and discovered, not a leak, but that the plug was out, it took him less than a second’s time, and that when he w,ent down again after cutting a plug, it took him less time than it did the first to go down, insert the plug and get back to the open air.

In O’Malley v. Missouri Pac. Ry. Co., 113 Mo. 319, l. c. 329, 20 S. W. 1079, our Supreme Court said, speaking of smoke in a tunnel which it was claimed had suffocated the husband of the plaintiff and caused his death, “There is no evidence which tends to prove that any officer of the defendant could have anticipated a [257]*257condition of the tunnel which was dangerous to human life.

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Bluebook (online)
152 S.W. 415, 169 Mo. App. 243, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nagle-v-laclede-gas-light-co-moctapp-1912.