Skaggs v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad

73 S.W.2d 302, 228 Mo. App. 808
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 2, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 73 S.W.2d 302 (Skaggs v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Skaggs v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, 73 S.W.2d 302, 228 Mo. App. 808 (Mo. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

TRIMBLE, J.-

The case, now here on writ of error to the Vernon County Circuit Court, was originally here on appeal, set on the docket for October 10, 1933, at the October term of that year, but on October 6, 1933, appellant, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, dismissed its appeal and, on November 2, 1933, sued out the above mentioned writ of error returnable to the present term.

Within the time required, plaintiff in error filed its printed abstracts and briefs. Point 1 of the brief of defendant in error is that the abstract of plaintiff in error fails to show in its bill of exceptions that any exception was saved to the overruling of the motion for new trial.

We note that while the printed abstract of the plaintiff in error (loes not show, in its abstract of the hill of exceptions, that any exception to the overruling of the motion for new trial was made, yet in the record proper, at the place where the overruling of the [809]*809motion for new trial is shown, it appears that “on the 15th day of February, 1933, the same being the third judicial day of said court, said motion for a new trial was taken up and considered and was by the court overruled, to which ruling and action defendant at the time excepted and now excepts.”

The amendment of April 4, 1932, to our Rule 15 reads:

“If in any case any matter which should properly be set forth in the abstract as a part of the record proper, shall appear in the abstract as a part of the bill of exceptions, or vice-versa, such matter shall be considered and treated as if set forth in its proper place, and all objections on account thereof shall be deemed waived, unless the other party shall, within ten days after the service of such abstract upon him, specify such objections and the reasons therefor in writing and serve the same upon the opposing party or his counsel, . . . ”

It will be observed that unless the other party objects within ten days after the service of the abstract upon him, all objections on account of the matter not being in its proper place “shall be deemed waived.” This was not done. Indeed, nothing was done until on October 6, 1933, nearly thirty days after the time of service of such abstract, when a so-called “motion to dismiss appeal” was filed, but which stated no reason for such motion or action and, under our rule, we must regard the point made as having been waived under our said Rule 15. This renders it unnecessary to go into the validity of the trial court’s nunc pro tunc order showing such exception was made under the rules of said court and was entitled tq go into its proper place in the abstract. Said point 1 of defendant in error is disallowed.

On its merits, the case is over the validity of a judgment for $282 rendered on a verdict returned by a jury for loss alleged to have been negligently caused by the plaintiff in error, The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, in the acceptance for transportation of 4700 chicks which were by the railroad’s agents and servants allowed to become injured and many of them, perhaps all, to die.

The petition, after alleging the existence of the railroad as a common carrier, further alleged:

“That on the 21st day of July, 1930, the United States Post Office Department, through its officers, agents and servants, at Nevada, Missouri, for a valuable consideration, contracted with and agi’eed to transport, and caused to be transported, over the lines of the defendant, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, a connecting carrier with the said United States Post Office Department, to a number of points along the lines of the defendant and along other connecting lines, forty-seven hundred chicks (4700), of the value of two hundred eighty-two and no-100 dollars ($282.00).
“The plaintiff further says that he delivered said chicks to the officers, agents and servants of the said United States Post Office Department, and that they, the said officers, agents and servants of the [810]*810said 'United States Post Office Department, in line of tbeir duty, and under authority of the said United States Post Office Department, accepted said chicks for shipment, as aforesaid, and delivered all of said chicks in good condition to the officers, agents, servants of the defendant, at Nevada, Missouri, for the purpose of being shipped, as aforesaid;- that the said defendant, through its officers, agents and servants; and in pursuance of its obligation as a common and connecting carrier, and in pursuance of its duty to the plaintiff, as such common and connecting carrier, received said chicks in good condition, for the purpose of being transported and shipped as aforesaid.
“The plaintiff further says that said checks were delivered to the defendant, as aforesaid, in time to have been placed aboard one of the defendant’s trains within a very short time after said delivery for shipment, as aforesaid, but that the agents and servants of the defendant in charge of its business, being-duly authorized to receive and transport said chicks, negligently, carelessly and wantonly failed to place said checks aboard said train for shipment, as was the duty of the defendant, its agents and servants, so to do.
“The plaintiff further says that at the date and time of the delivery of said chicks to the said defendant, as aforesaid, the weather was extremely hot, making it dangerous and hazardous to the health and life of said checks unless placed aboard a train for shipment, or unless kept in a cool and open space; that the defendant, its officers and agents, knew, or by the exercise of ordinary care could have known, of the condition of the weather at the time of the reception of said chicks for shipment, as aforesaid, and knew, or by the exercise of ordinal^ care could have known, that said chicks would be injured and caused to die if confined in a hot or unventilated room or place; that the officers, agents and servants of the said defendant, notwithstanding the knowledge of said facts caused said chicks to be delayed in shipment, and caused the same, while so being delayed, to be confined in a hot room, without ventilation, for a period of from six to-eight hours, and that because of said negligent handling, and confining of said chicks, the same became overheated and died, to the plaintiff’s damage in the sum of two hundred and éighty-two and no-100 dollars ($282.00).”

The answer was a general denial.

The evidence in behalf of the plaintiff, originally so-called, in the cáse, now the defendant in error, is, in substance, as follows:

John D. Graves, assistant postmaster at Nevada, and in the employ of that department for thirty-two years, testified that on July 21, 1930, he had a messenger' that delivered mail to the railroad at that city; that said railroad carried, and now carries, mail for post-offices in the United States and the United States -postoffice receives mail from it; that plaintiff Skaggs had been shipping chicks and—

‘ ‘ I sent a couple of clerks down to weigh them up and stamp them, [811]

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283 Ill. App. 527 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
73 S.W.2d 302, 228 Mo. App. 808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skaggs-v-missouri-kansas-texas-railroad-moctapp-1934.