Slaughter v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co.

23 S.W. 760, 116 Mo. 269, 1893 Mo. LEXIS 286
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 30, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 23 S.W. 760 (Slaughter 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
Slaughter v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 23 S.W. 760, 116 Mo. 269, 1893 Mo. LEXIS 286 (Mo. 1893).

Opinion

Uantt, P. J.

This is an action for personal injuries, sustained by the plaintiff on the fourth _ of October, 1889, by being thrown from an electric street car, operated by defendant. Plaintiff recovered a verdict for $5,000, and defendant appeals.

The following averment sufficiently states the case made in the petition:

“That plaintiff was standing at the crossing where Eighth street runs into Kansas avenue aforesaid, and stepped on the front platform of a car in charge of the defendant’s employees, the same being a motorman and a conductor. When plaintiff had stepped upon the platform and started to go inside of the car, as other passengers do, the motorman told him to get off, and to get on the rear platform. Plaintiff turned, and following the orders of defendant’s employee, started to step off the car, and just as he did so the motorman increased the speed of the car suddenly, and by reason of the sudden and careless starting of the car, and by virtue of the wrongful ordering of plaintiff by the servant of. defendant to get off the car, the plaintiff was thrown violently to the ground, and his right arm, wrist and hand were broken, bruised and fractured. These bruises and'fractures constitute permanent injury, and will render plaintiff a cripple for life. Plaintiff was compelled to employ a physician, buy medicine and drugs, and also suffered great bodily and mental pain.

[273]*273“Wherefore plaintiff prays judgment against the defendant for fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), the amount of his damages together with costs.”

The answer consisted, in a general denial, contributory negligence and the following special plea:

“(3) Defendant for further answer avers: That the matters and things complained of all occurred in the state of Kansas, and under the laws of said state the acts done by the defendant, its agents, servants and. employees, at the time complained of, did not constitute negligence; and each of the acts done by plaintiff at such time, did constitute negligence upon his part, under the laws of such state, and such acts of negligence contributed directly to the injuries complained of.” '

There was evidence tending to prove that plaintiff suffered the injury of which he complains through a want of care by the motorman in charge of the car in starting it too rapidly as plaintiff was about to get off of the front platform in obedience to the directions of the motorman to get on at the rear of the car, and evidence tending to show it was caused by plaintiff’s own negligence. It was a question of fact for the jury, and they found for plaintiff.

The grounds urged here for reversal will be considered in the order pursued in the briefs.

I. Plaintiff testified that he was in the furnace and tin business in Kansas City; that on the day of the accident he went to Armourdale, Kansas; that he had stepped on the front of the car to return to Kansas City, and was ordered to get off, and get on at the other end, and just as he started, the car shot forward, and threw him and broke his right wrist. He testified it was two months before he put in any time at the store, and five months before he assumed any responsi[274]*274Uility in his business. He testified to the pain he suffered, and the apparently permanent nature of the injury. His physician’s bills were $50, including medicines and everything. Had a partner, and drew no salary. He was then asked by his counsel, “Are you able to estimate what your personal services were worth during that five months?” This was objected to by defendant, and the objection sustained, on the ground that it was incompetent, immaterial and irrelevant.

The court, among others, gave this instruction for plaintiff: “(3) If the jury find for the plaintiff, they will awai’d him such a sum of money, as damages, as ishall fully compensate him for the mental and bodily pain and suffering endured by\ him consequent upon the injury; the loss of time occasioned thereby, the expense of medicine and medical attention attributable thereto, and the loss to plaintiff of strength and efficiency already suffered and whatsoever may reasonably be expected to ensue in the future therefrom, if the injury was proved to be a permanent one; provided, however, that the verdict shall not exceed fifteen thousand dollars.”

The defendant complains because the court permitted the jury to consider loss of time occasioned by the injury as an element of damages, because it was not alleged in the petition as the basis of special damages, and the court having excluded the evidence by which plaintiff sought to show the value of his services during the time lost there was no evidence from which the jury could make an estimate of the damage resulting from such loss. On the other hand counsel for plaintiff contend that the petition authorizes a recovery for loss of time; that it is a natural result from the injury, .and such damage can be recovered in the absence of proof of the value of the time to plaintiff.

[275]*275There is no allegation in the petition counting upon loss of time specially as an element of damage, so that the discussion here is narrowed to this proposition: Is the general allegation of damages sufficient to authorize a recovery for loss of time, and without proof of the value of such time?

In Mellor v. Railroad, 105 Mo. 455, an averment that “plaintiff was permanently crippled, disfigured and disabled” was held insufficient to support evidence of “loss of earnings.” It was held in that case that “loss of earnings” was not a necessary consequence of the injuries alleged, and was not embraced in the general allegation of damages.

In Coontz v. Railroad, decided by this division, 115 Mo. 669, under the allegation that he “had been permanently disabled from 'labor,” it was held reversible error to permit plaintiff to prove the value of his monthly earnings,” citing Pinney v. Berry, 61 Mo. 366.

The allegation in this case is that “the injury is permanent and will render plaintiff a cripple for life.” Upon the authority of the two cases last cited, the evidence as to “the loss of time, and earnings,” was not admissible, and the trial court correctly so ruled. Having excluded the evidence we think it is manifest the instruction is erroneous in that it authorized damages of which there was no allegation, and no evidence. Duke v. Railroad, 99 Mo. 347; Smith v. Railroad, 108 Mo. 243; Norton v. Railroad, 40 Mo. App. 642; Rhodes v. Nevada, 47 Mo. App. 499; Winter v. Railroad, 74 Iowa 448; Railroad v. Simcock, 17 S. W. Rep. (Tex.) 47; Britton v. Railroad, 51 N. W. Rep. (Mich.) 276; Leeds v. Metropolitan Gas Light Co., 90 N. Y. 26; Staal v. Railroad, 107 N. Y. 625.

The distinction sought to be made between “loss of time” and “loss of earnings for that time,” does not exist, in law. The damages to be awarded in either [276]*276case is the pecuniary value ef the time lost, and either expression sufficiently indicates the measure. In common acceptation they are one and the same thing. We-think oh principle this instruction, upon the facts of this case, is even less defensible than that which was. disapproved in Duke v. Railroad, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
23 S.W. 760, 116 Mo. 269, 1893 Mo. LEXIS 286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slaughter-v-metropolitan-street-railway-co-mo-1893.