Neier v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

12 Mo. App. 25, 1882 Mo. App. LEXIS 5
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 28, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 12 Mo. App. 25 (Neier v. Missouri Pacific Railway 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
Neier v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co., 12 Mo. App. 25, 1882 Mo. App. LEXIS 5 (Mo. Ct. App. 1882).

Opinion

Bakewell, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action by husband and wife for injuries to the wife by being thrown out of a milk-wagon, in consequence of a collision with one of the locomotives of defendant on defendant’s track in St. Louis. There was a verdict and judgment for plaintiffs.

There was evidence tending to show that Neier was a dairyman, and that his wife was delivering milk to cus[28]*28tornera on the morning of the accident. In making her rounds, she entered Poplar Street from Third Street about six o’clock on a morning in August. She asked about the train, and was told by the flagman that it would be round the curve almost immediately.- She then drove her wagon on to a vacant lot and entered the house of an acquaintance,, where she remained about a quarter of an hour. She then drove down Poplar Street and was delivering milk at a house between Main and Second Streets, when the train of the Iron Mountain Eailroad, drawn by the locomotive of defendant, came round the curve from the levee, at the rate of about fifteen miles an hour. She dropped her milk, took up the lines, and attempted to drive across the track, so as to get into the alley on the other side of the street, which does not run through the block. She would possibly have accomplished her purpose, but that the horse was-checked by the good-natured efforts of a passer-by, who caught the head-stall to hurry the horse over. As it was, the locomotive caught one of the hind wheels and Mrs. Neier was thrown out and permanently injured, and the wagon was wrecked.

Poplar Street at the point of collision is twenty-one feet and one inch from curb to curb. The track of defendant’s road leaves eight feet between the rail and the curb on either side. The passenger cars in the train projected eighteen inches on each side over the track, which is five feet one inch between the rails. The track makes a very sharp curve from >the levee to Poplar Street. The accident took place about three hundred and eighty feet from the levee, on a heavy up-grade.

Evidence was introduced tending to show that Mrs. Neier might possibly have escaped if, in her strait, she had calmly done the very wisest thing possible under the circumstances. There was also evidence tending to show that she did the best that she could do, and the best that could be done, to escape. There was evidence tending to show [29]*29that the flagmen were all at their post, and did all that lay in them to signal aud stop the train. Nor do we think that it can be fairly inferred from the evidence, that the engineer was guilty of any other negligent or wrongful act than that of coming round the curve at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. The testimony is, that he saw the wagon as soon as the locomotive came round the curve; that he put on the air-brake, gave a backward movement to the driving-wheel, and dropped sand on the track at once. But the track was very muddy, and it was not possible to stop the train before it reached the wagon. There is also evidence'tending to show that a train of five cars, as this train was, could not, on a muddy day, be brought round the curve and up the Poplar Street grade at a rate of six miles an hour, and that the engineer came round at no higher speed than any experienced engineer would adopt to avoid probable danger of stalling the train on the Poplar Street ascent.

Plaintiffs introduced in evidence an ordinance of the city of St. Louis, No. 10,305, approved January 22, 1877, which provides that it shall be unlawful, within the limits of the city of St. Louis, for any car or locomotive propelled by steam, to run at arate of speed greater than six miles per hour, except on tracks upon the levee from Arsenal Street to Ehvood Street. The violation of the provision is made a misdemeanor subjecting the offender to fine not to exceed $500. Appellant objected to the ordinance as incompetent and irrelevant.

An instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence was refused.

The court gave the case to the jury upon the following instructions, of which the last two were given at defendant’s instance. There was also an instruction as to the measure of damages, not set out in the bill of exceptions :

“1. If the jury find from the evidence that plaintiff Cath[30]*30erine, at the time mentioned in the petition, was the wife of her co-plaintiff Joseph Neier, and that defendant, at the time and place mentioned, by its agents or employees, ran its locomotive against plaintiffs’ wagon, and caused the injuries complained of, and that said collision was so caused through the negligence or carelessness of defendant or its-agents in the management of its locomotive, and without any want of ordinary care on the part of said Catherine, directly contributing to the happening of said collision, then they will find for the plaintiffs.
“2. Although the .jury may believe from the evidence that plaintiff Catherine was guilty of some negligence or imprudence which contributed remotely to the happening of said accident, yet, if they further find from the evidence, that the defendant, by the exercise of ordinary care and prudence, after having discovered the danger in which plaintiff was, could have avoided the calamity, then the jury will find for the plaintiffs.
“ 3. The court instructs the jury, that if they find from the evidence that plaintiff Catherine was in the habit of going in and along Poplar Street, between Second and Main Streets, in the city of St. Louis, about the time she so entered and passed along said street on the morning in question; that on or about the time she so entered, it was customary for a train or trains of defendant to pass over and along said street; that on the morning of the accident a watchman or flagman was stationed by the defendant at the intersection of Second and Poplar Streets aforesaid, for the purpose of warning persons on foot and in vehicles of the approach of defendant’s said train or trains, and that said watchman or flagman did so warn and notify plaintiff Catherine of the approach of a train ; or if you further find that plaintiff Catherine had any other timely notice thereof, and that by the exercise of reasonable care and prudence on her part, she could have avoided the injuries she received, [31]*31you will find for the defendant, although you may believe that the speed of defendant’s train exceeded the limit provided by the ordinance read in evidence.
“4. The court instructs the jury, that in the use of a public highway such as said Poplar Street, all persons are required to exercise reasonable care and prudence to avoid a collision, according to the different modes of travel adopted by each, and in considering this case you are at liberty to take into consideration all the facts and circumstances which affect the modes of travel adopted, and measure the care and caution required of both the plaintiff Catherine and the defendant by such facts and circumstances.”

The following instruction was asked by defendant and refused by the court: —

“Although the jury may believe that the city of St.

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Bluebook (online)
12 Mo. App. 25, 1882 Mo. App. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neier-v-missouri-pacific-railway-co-moctapp-1882.