Patton v. Morrin-Powers Mercantile Co.

132 S.W. 684, 231 Mo. 298, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 253
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 30, 1910
StatusPublished

This text of 132 S.W. 684 (Patton v. Morrin-Powers Mercantile 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
Patton v. Morrin-Powers Mercantile Co., 132 S.W. 684, 231 Mo. 298, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 253 (Mo. 1910).

Opinion

WOODSON, J.

The plaintiff, a lady, seventy-three years of age, was knocked down and trampled' upon by a horse, driven by an employee of defendant, on one of the public streets of Kansas City. Her injuries were quite serious, and she instituted this suit to recover the sum of $10,000 damages of defendant on account of those injuries, alleged to have been inflicted through the alleged negligence of said employee.

The defendant was engaged in the mercantile business in said city, and said employee was at the time of the injury engaged in delivering goods for the defendant.

At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, the court announced that it would give an instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence, telling the jury that plaintiff was not entitled to a recovery, to which action of the court plaintiff duly objected and excepted; and, thereupon, she took a nonsuit with leave to move to set aside the same. In due time counsel for plaintiff filed a motion to set aside the nonsuit, and asking for a new trial. After due consideration the court, without assigning any reason therefor, sustained said motion; and to the action of the court in so ordering, the defendant properly excepted, and in due time appealed therefrom to this court.

The facts of the case as disclosed by the record are few and practically-undisputed. Plaintiff’s evidence tended to prove that on October 11, 1905, in the afternoon, she, a woman of seventy-three years of age and [303]*303of unusual vigor and good health for one of her.years, left her home in Rosedale, Kansas, on a street car, for the purpose of visiting her daughter, who resided near the south end of the Roanoke ear line, in Westport. She took the Rosedale car in Rosedale, intending to transfer to a Roanoke car, south-hound, at Summit street,' Kansas City, Missouri. She left the Rosedale car about 4:45 p. m. on Southwest boulevard, about seventy-five feet west of Summit street, the point where the car stopped for passengers to alight, and was crossing on said boulevard in a northerly direction for the purpose of taking* a Roanoke car at the northwest corner of said boulevard and street. She had crossed north over both car tracks and was a few feet north of the north rail of the north track when knocked down, run over and injured by defendant’s horse and wagon. The plaintiff was perfectly familiar with the situation, having made this same trip numerous times, and almost every week. The place of the injury was at a regular transfer point for street car passengers. At the time of the catastrophe there was a heavy traffic on Southwest boulevard, also a heavy transfer of passengers at the intersection of Summit street and said boulevard — the cars of three lines were passing over the tracks of the Summit street line.

While the court assigned no ground for sustaining the demurrer to the evidence, however counsel for defendant in their briefs contend that the court properly sustained the demurrer, or rather indicated that it would do so, for two reasons: First, because the evidence did not make a case for the jury; and, second, because the evidence conclusively showed that plaintiff was guilty of such contributory negligence as should bar a recovery. It, therefore, becomes necessary for us to briefly state the evidence introduced bearing upon those questions.

John Pryor testified that what first attracted his attention was the driver going across the street car [304]*304tracks in Summit street; that he went across at a pretty good gait; that he saw the horse before it struck the plaintiff; that he saw the horse as it “ran upon the old lady;” “that up to the time it struck the plaintiff he did not notice that the speed of the horse was cheeked; ’ ’ that the impact with the horse knocked the plaintiff to the ground on her side, and the horse was standing kind of over her; straddle of her; that there was a man (James H. Grilkey) ahead of the horse, who threw up his hand, and the horse came very near touching him; that he did not think it touched him; that he never saw the plaintiff when he saw the man ahead of the horse; that after plaintiff was struck and thrown to the pavement she was headed west; that the horse was going at a pretty good gait; and by that he meant the driver was driving at a pretty fast trot.

Mattie Stevens testified that the plaintiff got off of a Rosedale car and started north across the Southwest boulevard; that she noticed her very particularly; that plaintiff had “gotten across both tracks and was going straight to the sidewalk” on the north side of the street, and the “horse and wagon ran right into her” and knocked her down; . . . “that after she fell the fellow (driver) grabbed back on the horse like that .(illustrating) and the horse trampled all over her:” that “just about the time the horse hit her, the driver hollered, ‘Get out of the way there;’ that she did not see the driver do anything except pull back on the lines; that the plaintiff’s clothing were all dirt and dust and torn; that the horse’s hoofs had ground holes in her garments, and a piece of her clothing, about that-long (indicating) was torn nearly off and hung by the edge; ” . . . that she could tell when a person had imbibed liquor to excess; that the “driver was more than half intoxicated, too much so to be on a public wagon; that his eye-balls were red and his tongue thick,” and his breath smelt of “bad whiskey;” that she did not see the driver before he crossed the [305]*305car tracks in Summit street, and “then he was just coming at full speed; he didn’t make any halt whatever;” that she had crossed both tracks, and had gotten across the second or north track about two or three feet; that she fell towards Rosedale; her head fell that way;' right straight with the tracks going west, and straight with the horse’s head; that she fell full length; that the horse seemed to be standing on her stomach, but he-was on her clothing; she did not know whether he was on her'body or not.

On cross-examination: “ Q. Did you see her the instant she fell? A. Yes, sir. Q. Which direction was she going then? Like this (indicating), facing north? A. Her face was that way, yes, sir. Q. Did she look towards the east at any time? A. Why, sjie saw the wagon right on her, and just .did that way (indicating with hér hands) and fell. Q. But she didn’t see the wagon until it was right on her? A. I couldn’t say whether she did or not; I wasn’t using her eyes. Q. You were telling about what she was doing; you didn’t see her look towards the east to see if a car or wagon was coming? A. No, sir; I don’t remember anything about that at all.” That plaintiff’s left side struck the pavement; that she first saw the horse and wagon just as it bounced across the Summit street car tracks; that there is a good deal of travel there, but never any rush; no fast traffic along there; that wagons usually slack up a little at transfer points and crossings; that she did not notice the driver particularly before the horse struck the plaintiff. “Q. Now, did you or did you not say you noticed him continuously from the crossing of Summit street until his horse struck her? A. He was right in front of my eyes driving that way. I don’t know that I had my’eyes set right on him. Q. Did you or did you not watch him continuously from the time 'he crossed the Summit street tracks until he struck the plaintiff? A. Yes, [306]*306sir; I saw him from the time he crossed the track until he struck her. Q. Did you watch him continuously? A. I couldn’t say I did, but I saw him. Q.

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Bluebook (online)
132 S.W. 684, 231 Mo. 298, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patton-v-morrin-powers-mercantile-co-mo-1910.