Price v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.

119 S.W. 932, 220 Mo. 435, 1909 Mo. LEXIS 203
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 22, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by102 cases

This text of 119 S.W. 932 (Price v. Metropolitan Street Railway 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
Price v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 119 S.W. 932, 220 Mo. 435, 1909 Mo. LEXIS 203 (Mo. 1909).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

Upon consideration of tbis cause by tbe court In Banc, it is considered that tbe petition herein does not charge specific negligence, but general negligence, and tbe opinion by Graves, J., in division is adopted as tbe opinion of tbe court. Tbe court is of tbe opinion that there is no real conflict between tbe views expressed in tbis case and that of Davidson v. Transit Company, 211 Mo. 320, and that tbe language used in tbe Davidson case, supra, and quoted in tbe opinion in this case, was language used arguendo in tbe discussion of an instruction there under consideration, and it was not thereby meant to say that tbe petition in tbe Davidson case was a charge of [442]*442specific negligence. Judgment is therefore affirmed.

All concur; Vallimt, G. J., in separate opinion.

GRAVES, J.

Plaintiff, a passenger of the defendant, sues for damages in the sum of $15,000, for injuries alleged to have been received by reason of the car upon which she was riding having collided with another on the same track. The locus of the accident is the viaduct on the Twelfth Street line of defendant’s railway system in Kansas City, Missouri, and the date November 4, 1903, between seven and eight o’clock in the morning. Plaintiff was a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, and was working for the firm of Emery, Bird & Thayer, having charge of the underwear department of that firm’s store. On the day in question she boarded one of defendant’s cars at Grandview station in Kansas City, Kansas, and rode to a point two short blocks from the defendant’s Twelfth Street line, where it crosses Mulberry street. Procuring a transfer ticket she went to Mulberry street and there boarded an east-bound cable train (composed of a gripcar and coach or trailer) to go to her place of business. Mulberry street is near the west end of the Twelfth Street viaduct, which is quite a steep incline, upon which were two' cable tracks, one for east-bound and one for west-bound cars. The eastbound cars used the south track. After leaving Mulberry street, there is quite a space covered by this overhead viaduct, and going east the first street reached where the car rests on terra firma, is the bluff or sometimes designated Bluff street. A block east is Lincoln street, which is on an upward incline from the bluff or Bluff street, and whereat is a level space to receive and discharge passengers. Then there is an upward incline to Summit street, where there is another level place to receive and discharge passen[443]*443gers, and going east from Summit is another upward incline. The cable train upon which plaintiff was riding passed over the incline and reached in safety Summit street, where it stopped. It then started and after going up the incline a short space started to run backward, slowly at first, but continued to increase its speed until it reached a point somewhere near the middle of the viaduct incline, where it collided with another of defendant’s cable trains, bound eastward, and by this collision the plaintiff was injured. The petition, being a third amended petition, charges the relationship of passenger and carrier, and charges the negligence of the defendant in this language: “that while plaintiff was a passenger as aforesaid on one of defendant’s said trains, going in an easterly direction on said Twelfth street in Kansas City, Missouri, and at a point commonly known as the Twelfth Street incline, the defendant carelessly, negligently caused and permitted the train on which plaintiff was riding as a passenger, to come in violent collision with another train of defendant’s, said other train being on said Twelfth street and on said incline as aforesaid; that said collision was occasioned without any fault on the part of the plaintiff, but by reason of the negligence as aforesaid of the defendant; that said cars collided with great force and violence, wrecking both trains of defendant, so in charge of defendant’s agents, servants and employees.”

By way of answer the defendant said that it “denies both generally and specifically each and every allegation in said petition contained.”

Upon trial of the issues there was a verdict, signed by ten jurors, giving plaintiff the sum of five thousand dollars damages, upon which judgment was entered. After timely but unsuccessful motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the defendant appealed to this court.

[444]*444For the plaintiff the cause was submitted to the jury upon two instructions, one on the measure of damages, and the other couched in this language:

“1. The court instructs the jury that if you believe from the evidence that the plaintiff was a passenger upon a train of defendant at the time she claims to have been injured, then having received plaintiff upon board of such train, the due obligation of the defendant to plaintiff was to use the highest degree of care practicable among prudent, skillful and experienced men in that same kind of business, to carry her safely, and a failure of the defendant (if you believe there was a failure) to use such highest degree of care would constitute negligence on its part; and defendant would be responsible for all injuries resulting to plaintiff, if any, from such negligence, if any. And if you believe from the evidence that there was a collision between two trains of defendant on' one of which plaintiff was a passenger (if you believe she was a passenger thereon), the presumption is that it was occasioned by some negligence of the defendant, and the burden of proof is cast upon the defendant to rebut this presumption of negligence and establish the fact that there was no negligence on its part, and that the injury, if any, was occasioned by inevitable accident, or by some cause which such highest degree of care could not have avoided.”

Those given and refused for defendant will not be noted here, but will receive attention later as occasion requires. ■

The plaintiff in person testified to facts showing the relationship of carrier and passenger, the collision of the two trains and her consequent injury, and the extent of the injury. Not being able to get a seat she was standing in the aisle of the coach at time of collision. By doctors she also showed the nature and extent of the injury. The plaintiff, however, did not stop here as she might have done, resting [445]*445her case upon the well-founded doctrine of presumptive negligence, but she introduces witnesses, the purport of whose testimony is to show a number of negligent acts upon the part of the defendant. This testimony for the plaintiff tends to show the following facts:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Kennett v. Akers
564 S.W.2d 41 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1978)
Erbes v. Union Electric Company
353 S.W.2d 659 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1962)
Chiodini v. Terminal Railroad Ass'n of St. Louis
287 S.W.2d 357 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1956)
Wessing v. American Indemnity Co. of Galveston, Tex.
127 F. Supp. 775 (W.D. Missouri, 1955)
Girratono v. Kansas City Public Service Co.
251 S.W.2d 59 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1952)
Boulos v. Kansas City Public Service Co.
223 S.W.2d 446 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1949)
Niklas v. Metz
222 S.W.2d 795 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1949)
Belding v. St. Louis Public Service Co.
215 S.W.2d 506 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1948)
Maxie v. Gulf Mobile & Ohio Railroad
202 S.W.2d 904 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1947)
Hanson v. City Light & Traction Co.
173 S.W.2d 804 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1944)
Devine v. Kroger Grocery & Baking Co.
162 S.W.2d 813 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1942)
Benner v. Terminal Railroad Assn.
156 S.W.2d 657 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1941)
Jones v. Kansas City Public Service Co.
155 S.W.2d 775 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1941)
Evans v. Missouri Pacific Railroad
116 S.W.2d 8 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1938)
Thompson v. Kansas City Public Service Co.
114 S.W.2d 145 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1938)
Timmons v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co.
100 S.W.2d 952 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1936)
Williams v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad
85 S.W.2d 624 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1935)
Hartnett v. May Department Stores Co.
85 S.W.2d 644 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1935)
Tabler v. Perry
85 S.W.2d 471 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1935)
Powell v. St. Joseph Railway, Light, Heat & Power Co.
81 S.W.2d 957 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1935)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 S.W. 932, 220 Mo. 435, 1909 Mo. LEXIS 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/price-v-metropolitan-street-railway-co-mo-1909.