Ring v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

20 S.W. 436, 112 Mo. 220, 1892 Mo. LEXIS 210
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 15, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 20 S.W. 436 (Ring v. Missouri Pacific 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
Ring v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co., 20 S.W. 436, 112 Mo. 220, 1892 Mo. LEXIS 210 (Mo. 1892).

Opinion

Macfarlane, J.

TMs is a suit by plaintiff to recover damages for the death of her husband, Orloff Ring, by the alleged negligence of the defendant;

The petition charges that deceased was in the employ of the defendant as a track or section hand, under a foreman, Henry Kane; that between seven and eight o’clock, on the morning of December 31,1887, he was put to work, with other hands, on the track of •defendant’s road near the limits of the city of Pleasant Hill, under the direction of said foreman; and while so •engaged, and by reason of the negligence of said foreman and the engineer of a passenger train running on the road, he was struck by the locomotive of said train, and from injuries thereby received he subsequently ■died.

The specific acts of negligence charged were that ■on this morning the train was over an hour late, which was unknown to both deceased and the foreman, and passed the point at which -they were working at the rate of thirty-five miles per hour; “that the engineer in charge of said train saw, or by the exercise of reasonable care could have seen, said Ring’s dangerous position while at work, at the side of defendant’s track, in ample time to have stopped the train and avoided the injury to said Ring; but neglected to stop said [224]*224train or ring the bell, or blow the steam whistle attached thereto, and thus notify deceased of the approach of said train and of the danger to which he was exposed. And the said section foreman saw, or by the exercise of reasonable care could have seen, said train in ample time to have warned said deceased of the danger to-which he was exposed, which said foreman saw and knew, or might have seen and known by the exercise-of reasonable care, and might thereby have enabled said deceased to avoid the danger to which he was. exposed, but neglected to do so.”

The answer was a general denial, and a plea of contributory negligence.

The trial, by a jury, resulted in a verdict and judgment for defendant, and the case was brought to-this court for review by writ of error.

There was little, if any, conflict in the evidence-upon any material question. There were only two trackmen besides deceased working at the place of the accident; they were both witnesses at the trial, and the engineer and fireman were also witnesses. These four were the only persons in a condition to have seen the accident; none of them saw it, or could account for it.

The road, at the place of the accident, runs nearly east toward Pleasant Hill. The foreman and three laborers were at work on the track, commencing that, morning at about seven o’clock. The passenger train, from the west was due between six and seven o’clock, but on this morning it was about an hour late. The foreman, deceased and another laborer named Quick were working together, shoveling gravel. Prom fifty to one hundred and fifty yards west of them was a. whistling post, which was half a mile from defendant’s yards in Pleasant Hill, and at which trains coming-in were required to signal the yardmen by a whistle. Prom the whistling post to where the men were at work. [225]*225the track was straight and the view unobstructed. All three men were on the west side of the track; the foreman in the middle, deceased seven or eight feet north of him, and the man Quick the same distance south. The whistle signal was given at the proper place, and the train went by these men at the rate of twenty or twenty-five miles per hour. When deceased was last seen, “he was standing out from the railroad bed five or six feet, when the train came along,” as the foreman testified, and “about three feet from the end of the ties,” as Quick testified. Neither of them noticed him as the train passed, but after it had gone by “about one hundred feet” he was found lying six or seven feet from the track with a hole, in which the finger could be inserted, in the right side of the back part of the head, the skull being broken in. Erom this, wound he died in a few days.

These two witnesses were called by the plaintiff,, and these facts were shown by evidence introduced by her.

The engineer and the fireman of the engine were-called by defendant. They testified that the whistle of' the engine was sounded, and the train was stopped at. the crossing of the Fort Scott road, a quarter of a mile-away, and that the whistle was sounded again at the* whistling post. They saw the men standing on the side-of the road when the engine passed, none of them being near enough to have been struck by the engine. No other signals were given. They did not know that anyone was struck. The rate of speed of the train was not checked. No effort was made to stop the train. The foreman did not warn deceased of the approach of the train.

The evidence does not show that deceased saw the train or knew of its approach, unless the fact could be [226]*226inferred from other evidence. The train could have been stopped after the engineer got within view of the deceased. It was not the custom to stop or check up trains on approaching trackmen at work. Deceased had been employed as a trackman on defendant’s road nine or ten years. Trains passed over the road frequently during the day. There was no rule shown which required the foreman to notify workmen of the approach of trains.

The case was submitted to the jury upon a series of instructions, the correctness of some of which are questioned, but the view we take of the case makes it unnecessary to consider them in detail.

I. This case was certified to this court upon a writ of error from the circuit court of Johnson county. The writ calls for the record and proceedings in the case. The only record returned in obedience to the writ is a certified copy of the record entry of the judgment which was rendered in favor of the defendant upon the verdict of the jury. No order granting an appeal was returned. Plaintiff in error filed in this court what purports to be printed abstracts of the entire record of said cause, as provided by section 2253, Revised Statutes, and asks that her cause be reviewed upon such abstracts. It is insisted by defendant in error that there is no record before the court for its review; and for that reason the judgment should be affirmed.

It is evident that plaintiff in error has undertaken to obtain a review of the proceedings of the circuit court, as is provided by said section. That section provides that the appellant or plaintiff in error, in lieu of filing a complete transcript of the record in the appellate court, may file “a certified copy of the record entry of the judgment, order or decree appealed from in said cause, * * * together with the order granting’ [227]*227the appeal, and shall thereafter * * * file printed abstracts of the entire record * * * in the office of the clerk of such appellate court, * * * and •deliver a copy of said printed abstract to the respondent br defendant in error, and the respondent or defendant in error may * * * file additional abstracts. * * * If the abstract filed by appellant or plaintiff in error be .sufficient and correct, a reasonable charge therefor shall be taxed against the respondent or defendant in •error,” etc.

Defendant insists that as this statute requires a certified copy of the judgment appealed from and a copy of the order granting the appeal, to be filed in the appellate court, the provisions cannot apply to writs of error in proceedings in which the judgment was not appealed from, and in which there was no “order-granting an appeal.”

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Bluebook (online)
20 S.W. 436, 112 Mo. 220, 1892 Mo. LEXIS 210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ring-v-missouri-pacific-railway-co-mo-1892.