Pearson v. Kansas City Public Service Co.

225 S.W.2d 742, 359 Mo. 1185, 1950 Mo. LEXIS 554
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 9, 1950
DocketNo. 41424
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 225 S.W.2d 742 (Pearson v. Kansas City Public Service 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
Pearson v. Kansas City Public Service Co., 225 S.W.2d 742, 359 Mo. 1185, 1950 Mo. LEXIS 554 (Mo. 1950).

Opinion

LEEDT, J.

Action for personal injuries in which plaintiff recovered a verdict'for $7,000; judgment in accordance with the verdict, and defendant appealed to the Kansas City Court of Appeals, which affirmed. (See 217 S. W. 2d 276.) On defendant’s application, this court ordered transfer of the case under § 10, Art. V, Const, of Mo., 1945.

The facts are set out in the opinion of the Court of Appeals, to which reference is-made for a more detailed statement than is required for present purposes. Plaintiff, a pedestrian, was injured about 1 P. M., March 5, 1945, as the result of colliding with one of defendant’s streetcars as he was crossing the irregular intersection at Main and 29th Streets. Main runs north and south, and at .the point in question is about 76 feet in width. It approaches 29th from the north on an upgrade' of about five per cent. West of Main, 29th is 32 feet in width, but extending from Main eastward (because it merges with Warwick) it is in excess of 84 feet wide, resulting in the northeast corner of the intersection being 50 or 60 feet farther north than the northwest corner. There are double streetcar tracks, 15 feet 3 inches in total width, down the approximate middle of Main. The east rail of the northbound track is 31 feet 1 inch from the east curb line, and the west rail of the southbound track 29 feet 6 inches from the west curb. Situated at the northwest corner is a safety island, of the total length of 67 feet 3 inches, which consists of a 50-foot raised loading platform for southbound streetcars, plus 17 feet 3 inches of tapered concrete abutment on the north end. This loading platform is close to, and. parallel with the west rail of the southbound track. .The streetcar was southbound, and plaintiff was walking southwesterly across the intersection from the filling station at the northeast corner toward the south end of the- safety zone, where he expected to board a streetcar. There was a sharp conflict in the evidence as to whether plaintiff walked into the side of the streetcar several feet back of the front' end (as shown by defendant’s evi[1189]*1189deuce), or whether, according to the evidence on plaintiff’s behalf, he 'was on- the track ahead of the streetcar, and was struck by it.

Plaintiff testified on direct examination to this- effect: That as he reached the east rail of the northbound track, he saw an automobile rapidly approaching from the southwest. It was headed toward him, and only 10 or-.12 feet away. The streetcar was then “about 10 feet” north of the “tip end” of the safety zone. He quickened his pace to escape the approaching automobile, and veered his course from southwest to “about straight to the west,” thus permitting the automobile to pass behind him, but in close proximity to his person. This accomplished, he “discovered and thought about where I might be getting to, and I looked and the streetcar was coming, I thought, faster than I did think before and it was within ten feet of me or something like that. I threw my hand up and was going to turn to get out of the way and' at that time the streetcar hit me. ’ ’ Asked if he was able “to take a step in any direction or move out of its way” after discovering the streetcar “approximately ten feet” away from him, plaintiff replied that he “got partly turned * * * was jumping back off the track” when the impact occurred, and he was knocked down.

Plaintiff’s witness Boeger, who operated the filling station at the northeast corner of the intersection, testified that when the plaintiff got on the east rail of the southbound track, the distance separating him from the streetcar was “approximately 15 feet or the length of an' automobile * * * somewhere in there; I think the length of ah automobile is 16 to 18 feet.” He fixed the rate of speed of the streetcar at that time as “about 8 miles an hour.” Mrs. Burkard, another eye witness testifying for plaintiff, who lived at 17 East 29th ■ Street, placed the streetcar at “about 15 feet” from plaintiff when the latter got on the east rail of the southbound track, and estimated its speed at “7 or 8 miles an hour, something liké that, or 10.” There was other testimony to the effect that the streetcar was going as slow as 6 miles an hour, and that it could have been'stopped in 8 or 9 feet at 6 miles an hour, in about 10 feet at 8 miles per hour, and in about 12 feet at 10 miles an hour.

Submission was solely under plaintiff’s assignment of humanitarian negligence in failing to stop the streetcar after plaintiff’s peril arose. Whether a case was made for the jury on this issue is, in reality, the one question presented here, although the matter is treated at length under different assignments of error, each containing various subheads.

Defendant vehemently contended as the basis of its applicacase was made for the reason that plaintiff’s testimony on crosstion to transfer, and reiterates in this court that no ’ humanitarian [1190]*1190examination

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Related

Fisher v. Gunn
270 S.W.2d 869 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1954)
Davis v. Kansas City Public Service Co.
233 S.W.2d 669 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
225 S.W.2d 742, 359 Mo. 1185, 1950 Mo. LEXIS 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pearson-v-kansas-city-public-service-co-mo-1950.