Riska v. Union Depot Railroad

79 S.W. 445, 180 Mo. 168, 1904 Mo. LEXIS 56
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 1, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 79 S.W. 445 (Riska v. Union Depot Railroad) 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
Riska v. Union Depot Railroad, 79 S.W. 445, 180 Mo. 168, 1904 Mo. LEXIS 56 (Mo. 1904).

Opinion

BURGESS, J.

On February 3, 1903, an opinion was handed down in this case affirming the judgment of the court below. Thereafter, in due time, defendant filed motion for rehearing, which was sustained, and the case again fully argued by counsel in the case. We have again gone carefully over the record and considered with much care all the questions raised upon this appeal, including the points urged upon our attention by defendant in the motion for rehearing.

This is an action by plaintiff, the widow of Mathias Riska, deceased, to recover from defendant five thous- and dollars damages for the negligent killing of her husband, Mathias Riska, at the intersection of Ninth and Carroll streets, in the city of St. Louis, on the evening of October 21, 1892.

The petition, after alleging that plaintiff and deceased were husband and wife, the incorporation of defendant and its operation of a line of street railway in the city of St. Louis, alleged:

That on the 21st day of October, 1892, between ten and eleven o’clock p. m., Mathias Riska was lawfully, passing over the crossing at Ninth and Carroll streets, when defendant’s servants in charge of a car moving north on Ninth street so negligently and carelessly ran, controlled and managed it as to cause it to run upon and over Mathias Riska and injure him, from which injuries he died. That the car was run at a great and dangerous rate of speed, and without warning or signal by bell or otherwise of its approach.

That an ordinance then in force provided that the car should not be run at a greater speed than ten miles an hour, and that the car was run at a greater rate of speed than specified in said ordinance.

That there was in force in the city of St. Louis an ordinance which required defendant’s motorman and' conductor to keep a vigilant watch for persons on foot either on or approaching the track, and upon the first [180]*180appearance of danger to stop the car within the shortest time and space possible, and that snch duties were neglected.»

The answer was a general denial, except as to the defendant’s incorporation, which was admitted, and also contained a plea of contributory negligence, in that the deceased directly contributed to the accident which caused his death, by negligently stepping in front of a motor car on a dark night when the car was so near as to make a collision unavoidable. To this plea there was interposed a general denial.

The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff in the sum of five thousand dollars.

After unavailing motion for a new trial defendant brings the cause to this court by appeal for review. The facts are substantially as follows:

Plaintiff is the widow of Mathias Riska, deceased. On the evening of October 21, 1892, deceased had been in attendance at a gathering of old army men at a post at Tenth and Marion streets in the city of St. Louis, and was on his way home from that place when he was killed. 'When he started home about half past ten o ’clock that night, it was dark, and raining; he carried an umbrella over his head, and walked with “regular step” in the direction of the place of his injury, which occurred as he was crossing Ninth street, by being struck by defendant’s car just as he was stepping off of the track. The approaching car, which occasioned the injury, could be seen at least a block from the place of the accident. The testimony was conflicting as to whether or not the gong was rung as the car approached 'Carroll street, as well also as to the rate of speed at which it was moving, being variously estimated by the witnesses at from fifteen to thirty miles an hour, while the maximum rate of speed prescribed by the ordinances of the city was ten miles per hour.

The' headlight on the car was burning, but the light was dim. The car was lighted by lamps on the inside. [181]*181Deceased did not halt when he approached the track, but went upon it, as one witness testified, when the car was only five or six feet from him, “when the car was right away in front of him already.” The evidence did not show whether deceased did or did not look or listen for an approaching car before attempting to cross the track.

There was an electric light in the street which hung right over the intersection of Carroll street and Ninth street, where the accident occurred. It was burning brightly, so much so that one witness for the plaintiff testified that he was the width of a street away from where the accident occurred, and had no trouble seeing deceased just before the car struck him.

At the close of the evidence adduced by'plaintiff, defendant asked the court to instruct the jury that under the law and the evidence the plaintiff could not recover, which was refused, and defendant duly excepted.

While defendant then introduced evidence tending to contradict the evidence introduced by plaintiff with respect to some material matters it in no way tended to strengthen her case.

Over the objections and exceptions of defendant the court of its own motion instructed the jury as follows:

“2. You are instructed that it was the duty of Mathias Eiska before crossing the defendant’s electric railway track to exercise ordinary care to look and listen for approaching cars, and to exercise ordinary care to avoid coming into collision with such cars and if you find from the evidence in this case that Mathias Eiska failed to so look and listen before stepping on the defendant’s track, and that by so doing, he'might have observed the approaching car, and by the exercise of ordinary care, avoided the collision, then your verdict must be for the defendant, even though you believe the defendant was guilty of negligence, unless you further find that the motorman could have stopped the car in time to have avoided tlie collision by the use of every [182]*182means at his command consistent with the safety of the car and of the passengers in said car, after he discovered the danger to the deceased, or conld have discovered such danger by a vigilant watch.

“3. Yon are instructed that the motorman had a right to assume that Mathias Riska would not undertake to cross the track in front of his car in such a manner as to expose himself to collision, and if you believe from the evidence that he did so, and that the motorman did not and, by the exercise of a vigilant watch, could not have becáme aware of his intention to so cross the track in time to prevent the accident by stopping said car in the shortest time and space possible consistent with the safety of said car and the passengers therein, then your verdict should be for the defendant.

“5. You aré instructed that it was not the duty of the motorman to attempt to stop his car until in the opinion of a motorman of ordinary judgment in the exercise of ordinary care, the deceased Riska had placed, or was about to place himself in a situation of peril. But it was the duty of the motorman to keep a vigilant watch for persons on or approaching the track and when discovered in danger to use every possible effort consistent with the safety of the passengers in his car to avoid striking such person.

‘ ‘ 7. What constitutes ‘ ordinary care ’ as mentioned ■ in these instructions, depends on the facts of each particular case.

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Bluebook (online)
79 S.W. 445, 180 Mo. 168, 1904 Mo. LEXIS 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/riska-v-union-depot-railroad-mo-1904.