Skipton v. St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway Co.

82 Mo. App. 134, 1899 Mo. App. LEXIS 505
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 4, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 82 Mo. App. 134 (Skipton v. St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway Co.) 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
Skipton v. St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway Co., 82 Mo. App. 134, 1899 Mo. App. LEXIS 505 (Mo. Ct. App. 1899).

Opinion

SMITH, P. J.

This is an action brought by the plaintiff to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the defendant. There was a trial in the court below and at the conclusion of the evidence adduced by the plaintiff the defendant interposed a demurrer thereto which was sustained and judgment given thereon accordingly for defendant, flom which the plaintiff has appealed. The only question raised by the appeal for our decision is as to the propriety of the action of the court in respect to the demurrer.

The evidence given for plaintiff discloses that the defendant owns a railroad bridge over the Missouri river at St. Joseph, in this state, over which it runs its trains in the transaction of its business as a common carrier. This bridge was about a quarter of a mile in length and sixteen feet, ten inches in width. The floor of the bridge throughout its entire length and width was planked, and in the center of the bridge was laid a railroad track, the rails of which were four feet, eight inches apart, and the space consequently on each side of the track, between the track and the side of the bridge, was six feet and one inch in width. This space on each side of the track was at the time of the accident, and for years before, used by pedestrians as a footpath or sidewalk in crossing the bridge. Plaintiff lived in Kansas, some half or three-quárters [138]*138of a mile from the bridge. She and another girl worked in an overall factory in St. Joseph and had been in the habit of crossing over the bridge on foot to their work every morning before daylight, for nearly a month and a half. The train with which the accident happened was a fieight train,, running on regular schedule time, and crossed the bridge into Kansas about the same time every morning.

On the morning of January 10, 1898, the plaintiff and her girl companion came from their homes to the Kansas end of the bridge to cross it on their way to the factory. Both the plaintiff and her companion testified that they saw the headlight of an engine as they started in to cross the bridge.The plaintiff testified that when they started, both she and her companion were on the north side of the bridge on the part devoted' to foot passengers, and that they continued on that side up until the time of the accident, and that at no time were they .between the rails of the track. She says that she and her companion were not walking side by side, neither was one directly behind the other, but that her companion was about a step to her left and nearer to the railing of the bridge, and also about a step in advance of her. This would bring the plaintiff nearer the track. She further states that this relative position was maintained from the time of starting until the accident. The plaintiff further testified that after she first saw the light of the engine she did not keep her eye on it; that she walked to about half way of the bridge before the collision occurred; that the speed of the engine, and train thereto attached, was about three miles an hour. The plaintiff testified further that though she saw the headlight about the time she -entered upon the bridge, that she did not know that it was approaching her until she was hit; that she could not tell how long it was before she was hit that she ceased to look at the headlight; that she was at no time on the railroad track; that she was struck by the pilot beam of the engine which others testified was nine feet five inches long; that the [139]*139distance between its projecting ends and tbe outside of tbe bridge walk was about three feet four inches.

The plaintiff’s companion testified, that after the plaintiff had been knocked down and the train was stopped the engineer went back to where she was and asked her if she did not see the headlight of the engine and to which inquiry she replied that she did but thought that she was out of the way. Shartle, the fireman on the train, who was called as a witness for plaintiff, testified that plaintiff shortly after the accident stated to him that she saw the headlight and thought she was far enough away to avoid being hit. It was further shown that the bridge was not provided with lights and that as the train approached the place where the collision took place neither the bell, was rung nor the whistle sounded. It was, however, shown that just before the plaintiff was struck she heard the engineer halloo: “Look out, girls.”

The court rejected an offer of plaintiff to prove that the floor in the sidewalk of the bridge on which plaintiff was walking was defective in that there were numerous holes therein next to the outside guard rail on the ground that it did not appear from the allegations of the petition, or otherwise, that there was the slightest casual connection between the defect and the injury. Suppose this ruling of the court was improper and the rejected evidence should have been received, yet, was the evidence hereinbefore stated, supplemented by this offer of the plaintiff, sufficient to warrant a submission of the case to 'the jury ?

The fact, if it was a fact, that the defendant had negligently suffered the floor of the bridge to become defective in the manner already stated had no sort of connection with the plaintiff’s injury. It indubitably appears that there was ample space on the bridge outside of the railroad track over which the plaintiff could have proceeded with absolute safety had she chosen to do so. There was at least three feet eight inches of space between the west end of the pilot beam ‘that struck [140]*140plaintiff and the outside of the bridge which was all the room plaintiff required to pass safely along. This is satisfactorily shown by the fact that plaintiff’s companion, who walked still further out from the track than the plaintiff, did not collide with the pilot beam. It is thus seen that the plaintiff was not obliged to walk as near the railroad track as she did to avoid falling through the holes in the floor of the bridge. If there had been no defect whatever in the floor the plaintiff would, have walked exactly where she did. We must therefore conclude with the trial court that the relation of cause and effect was not shown by the rejected evidence ¡to exist between the defect in the floor of the bridge and the plaintiff’s injury, and therefore such evidence was wholly irrelevant.

Nor can we see that defendant’s failure or neglect to have lights of any kind on the bridge had any connection with the plaintiff’s injury. It is alleged in the petition that the headlight in the defendant’s engine dazzled and blinded the plaintiff so that instead of there being a deficiency of light on the bridge there was, in fact, an excess. The plaintiff saw the headlight at the east end of the bridge as soon as she entered upon the west end. This light, according to the allegations of the petition, must have penetrated the prevailing fog and darkness and illumined the bridge-way for a considerable distance in advance of the approaching train. It must be conceded that the headlight increased in lightness as it approached from the east end of the. bridge, where plaintiff first discovered it. There was nothing in the existing physical conditions to prevent the plaintiff from afterwards seeing that it was not stationary.

The plaintiff was no stranger on the bridge. She had crossed it every morning about the same time as on the morning of the accident for nearly a month before. The train with which she collided was running on its regular schedule time — the same time on which it had been running for many months prior thereto.

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

Related

Spiro v. St. Louis Transit Co.
76 S.W. 684 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1903)
White v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co.
84 Mo. App. 411 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1900)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 Mo. App. 134, 1899 Mo. App. LEXIS 505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skipton-v-st-joseph-grand-island-railway-co-moctapp-1899.